40 PEAR MILDEW. 



greenhouses, makes an excellent open tart or preserve, but such 

 I find to be the case. The following bints on its cultivation may 

 be useful to those who may feel inclined to give it a trial. 



" Jt may be raised from seeds very early in the year ; but I find 

 it far preferable to raise a supply of plants from cuttings in January, 

 as these produce fruit which is much finer and ripens much earlier 

 in the summer, than that borne on plants raised from seeds. The 

 plants should be gradually hardened in March, and should be 

 turned out subsequently, under a south wall, in a favourable soil 

 and position. They will perfect their fruit by the end of July, and 

 will go on bearing abundant crops until the end of October, par- 

 ticularly if the superfluous shoots and leaves are occasionally 

 pruned away, in order to allow the rays of the sun to reach the 

 fruit." 



IX. — Pear Mildew. A Note by the Rev. M. J. Berkley. 



(Communicated November 11th, 1852). 



Many varieties of Pear are affected this autumn with a black 

 mildew, which is extremely injurious to their beauty, and, conse- 

 quently, to their market value. In the Garden of the Horticultural 

 Society, the Glout Morceau and Easter Beurre are more espe- 

 cially affected, but the disease is not confined to these varieties ; 

 in my own district, I have noticed it more particularly on the 

 St. Germain. The disease attacking the fruit is, in point of fact, 

 the same which has of late been observed so frequently both in 

 this country and on the Continent, on the leaves and young shoots 

 of Pears, and of which some account was given in the Garcl. Citron. 

 of June 17, 1845, as also of a similar disease on the leaves of 

 Crataegus Pyracantha, October 28, of the same year. The fungus, 

 like many others, takes its origin beneath the real cuticle, through 

 which it soon makes its way, and then appears perfectly superficial. 

 In some cases, as in the leaves of the Common Service, and on 

 Apple leaves, the mycelium exhibits a beautifully radiated spot, 

 and, in consequence, it has been named by Persoon, Actinonema. 



than the leaves, and as well as the bracts, pedicels, and exterior of perianth, 

 shaggy with long hairs ; pedicels as long as the perianth, exceeding the 

 subulate membranous-edged bracts.— T.M., in Garcl. Comp.,165 (with figure). 



