PROFESSOR VON MOHL 



the presence of the fungus for some days, but the mode of 

 cultivation of the vines in practice there, on high trellises, is even 

 with the help of a ladder unfavourable to constant observation. 

 The whole spring was unusually wet, and both immediately 

 before and after the appearance of the disease tlie rain fell in 

 torrents every day. This extreme moisture combined in June 

 with a rather high degree of temperature (72,5° Fahr.) was 

 doubtless favourable to the development of the fungus, for news 

 of the eruption of the malady arrived from different parts of the 

 continent a few days after. The malady, which had been observed 

 ten days previously, first occurred to me at Bozen on the 23rd 

 of June, already very generally diffused and in a higher state of 

 development than at Venice, for not only the larger discoloured 

 spots, covei-ed with mould, of which I have spoken in my former 

 memoir, appeared on the bark of the new shoots, and the leaves 

 were in part sensibly powdered with white dust ; but the fungus 

 was not rare on the young ovaries which had attained two or 

 three times the magnitude they had when the blossoms were 

 first expanded, whereas at Venice two days previously they 

 were still free. 



Whether this early irruption of the disease is attributable to 

 the luiusual moisture of the present year, or whether it was 

 simply observed at an earlier period than last year, because 

 of the greater attention paid to the subject, must be left for 

 futui'e inquiry. 



In consequence of the very great economical importance of the 

 cultivation of the vine in Italy, the malady has naturally engaged 

 during the two last years the attention of many of the best 

 observers in the country ; and in several places, as at Florence 

 and Venice, commissions have been established for its investiga- 

 tion. The principal point of contention to which these inquiries 

 have given rise, and which in a certain quarter has been carried 

 on with more vehemence than was quite seemly, is the question 

 whether the vines themselves are diseased, and the fungus is 

 a consequence of the disease ; or whether, on the contrary, the 

 vines themselves are healthy, and the disease is the consequence 

 of the influence of the fungus on the plants, and carried b}' 

 means of the parasite from one plant to another. 



In my former memoir I had remarked that in consequence of 

 the morbid appearances connected with the presence of the 

 fungus being confined to the outer strata of the green coloured 

 organs, and in particular to the outer coat of the bark, the 



