412 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ May 2", 1876. 



he will take Alpha tinder his charge and give ns the benefit of 

 his candid opinion as to its merits or demerits as placed against 

 the above varieties. Both Alpha and Amy Robsart I should 

 now mention are seminal varieties of Marguerite (Lebretou), 

 having when well grown a distinct trace of the Hautbois, not 

 so large and coarse as the parent, bat large enough, higher in 

 colour, and superior in flavour and productiveness ; for with 

 me Marguerite became almost barren. 



Your readers will I am sure, aa I do, thank Mr. Anderson 

 for his useful hints as to pot culture, and if with his method 

 they will take in hand the above sorts and follow them with 

 the handsome Duke of Edinburgh and Excelsior, they will 

 not require anything better or more easy of culture. Excelsior 

 poBsesses, without exception, the highest flavour and the best 

 quality under glass of any Strawberry I know. It is, of course 

 (as a late variety out of doors), later than the above, but it is 

 as firm and buttery as Carolina superba, and aa sweet and 

 piquant as Dr. Hogg. When speaking of Amy Robsart I 

 ought, perhaps, to inform your readers that this seedling can- 

 not, I fear, be sent out till next year. My gardener considers 

 himself pledged to issue Excelsior, and possibly Bonny Lass, 

 two late sorts, in August next ; meanwhile the stock of Amy 

 Robsart, which at present is very low, will be increasing for 

 the following year, together with Hundredfold, another im- 

 mense cropper from the Marguerite class. 



Mrs. Laxton, a hybrid between Alliance (Laxton) and Fra- 

 garia tardissima (Roden), is in preparation, and I hope will be 

 found to open up a new strain, as did La Constante when its 

 eminent raiser (De Jonghe) issued that famous variety to the 

 fragarian world. I take this opportunity also to mention that 

 Variegated Enchantress is also doing well considering the 

 tantalising winter to the Strawberry crop in general, and gives 

 aie great hopes of being a bearer of high-class fruit. 



So much for some of the numerous novelties I have yet in 

 store at Morningsidc. — W. B., Kidderminster. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



In the last number of the Royal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal there is an essay by Professor A. de Bary, of the Uni- 

 versity of Strasbourg, on the Potato fungus, which contains 

 information that may be interesting to some of your readers. 

 Part 1 of the essay is devoted to describing the difference 

 between Cystopus, Peronospora, and Pbytophtbora, the latter 

 being the family to which the writer assigns the Potato fungus, 

 and calls it Phytophthora infestans. This part of the essay 

 bristles with scientific terms, so much so that I expect few 

 readers of the Agricultural Journal will trouble to find out the 

 difference between conidia and conidiophores, and oogouias and 

 oospores, A-c, and in the other parts of the essay, too, there is 

 a pretty free use of them. Part 2 is devoted to the pheno- 

 mena of the growth of the Peronospora. Part ;> to the life 

 history of the Potato fnugup. Parts 1, 5, and C are a con- 

 tinuation of the same. Part 7 to the occasional appearance of 

 other fungi. Part 8 is devoted to an examination of the dis- 

 coveries of Mr. Worthington G. Smith. Part 9 is a continu- 

 ation of the same subject. Part 10 is on the hibernation of 

 the Potato fungus. The last part is, I think, the only one 

 which will be of any practical use to your readers. 



With regard to the spread of the Potato disease the author 

 says, " In large stores of Potatoes we often find that some are 

 diseased — that is, containing the living mycelium of Phyto- 

 phthora. It cannot be disputed that the living fungus may 

 occasionally be introduced into the field through planting 

 such diseased tubers. I do not say that this happens largely, 

 but even if it never happened the fungus might still quite un- 

 observed get into the fields by means of diseased tubers, be- 

 cause as already has been said, the mycelium in the tubers 

 forms conidiophores directly it is placed in a moist atmosphere, 

 and such a condition is present in the usual temperature of 

 spring. This may be easily seen in freeh sections, or on the 

 injured surfaces of a diseased tuber. In moist store-rooms the 

 conidiophores (branches bearing offsets), may burst their way 

 through the unbroken skin, and particularly through the eyes. 

 Should this occur even on one Potato in one store-room or 

 cellar, it is clear the conidia (offsets), will find their way to 

 other Potatoes and attach themselves to them. If these quite 

 healthy tubers should then be planted in the ground the conidia 

 will germinate, the gtrms penetrate some of the tubers, and the 

 mycelium develope itself in them. All this is obvious from 

 simple experiments which have been well known for a long 

 time." It may be the fact that all this has been known eome 



time, but if so it certainly has not been brought forward with 

 sufficient prominence. It only shows how very careful people 

 ought to be in selecting their seed Potatoes, and never to keep 

 any for seed from a patch which is the least tainted with 

 disease. These facta would certainly account for the disease 

 suddenly appearing in a field far away from any garden, and 

 also the comparative freedom from disease of new sorts of 

 Potato when they first come out. 



Although the spread of disease in this way appears to have 

 been well known, it was not until last year that the author 

 was able to satisfy himself of the fact by his experiments. " In 

 March, 1875, about fifty healthy Potatoes were inoculated at 

 the eyes by fresh conidia. No exact test was applied to ascer- 

 tain whether the infection had taken place ; the result, how- 

 ever, showed that it had succeeded in most oases, though not 

 in all. On the 'iud of April the tubers were planted in common 

 garden soil in a box without a bottom, and open to the air — 

 that is to say, in a miniature garden, which in order to be more 

 easily looked after was thus fenced-in. The tubers sent out 

 shoots in a normal manner, many, even of the specimens 

 known to be diseased, producing undoubtedly healthy foliage. 

 One (a red Kidney) was specially distinguishable from the rest, 

 because the six shoots which it sent above ground remained in 

 a wretched condition. On May 12th these shoots had become 

 brown. I cut off one for microscopic examination, and found 

 the living fungus in it. The presence of the fungus in the 

 tuber was afterwards confirmed. The other five shoots were 

 left, and up to the 17th remained unchanged without any 

 appearance of conidia. On the following night a warm heavy 

 rain fell, and on the morning of the 18th the stalks and petioles 

 of the five shoots were thickly covered by conidiophores with 

 mature conidia. On the healthy foliage of the other plants 

 there was no trace of the fungus as late as the 20th ; but on 

 the morning of the 21st two leaflets on the upper part of a 

 branch which was near the five sickly shoots presented the 

 characteristic spots of the Phytophthora, and on the lower sur- 

 face of the leaf where these spots occurred conidia were pro- 

 duced ; no further indications of the disease were visible to the 

 naked eye. From May 2.5th onwards the fungus spots were to 

 be seen plentifully scattered without order on the stalks, 

 petioles, and leaves of the plants. About the same time 

 several other diseased tubers gave off small shoots, into which 

 the mycelium of the fungus had passed from the tuber ; no 

 further observation, however, was made on them, because the 

 disease was far advanced everywhere. Most of the shoots were 

 still quite healthy at their base. They could not therefore 

 have received the infection from their tubers, but it could only 

 have come from the conidia produced on the five diseased 

 shoots. To remove all doubts on this point several stocks were 

 entirely dug up and closely examined in all parts. Two red 

 Kidneys had the old tuber still turgent and altogether free 

 from fungus ; the base of the shoots was likewise entirely free 

 from the fungus, while in the upper part the fungus spots 

 existed in abundance. During all this time to the end of May 

 there was nothing remarkable in the weather ; it was in general 

 moderately moist." 



From the foregoing remarks it would appear to be quite 

 possible to very much reduce the ravages of the Potato disease 

 by selecting seed from patches which show no signs of disease, 

 and planting those in places far away from any others to raise 

 a stock of them in sound condition free from taint. I hope 

 several of your correspondents will at once give the plan a trial. 

 — Amateue, Cirencester. 



NOTES OF A VOYAGE TO BUENOS AYBES. 



We arrived at Madeira on the 8th of November. We anchored 

 in a beautiful bay, on which is built Funchal, the principal 

 town of that magnificent and fruitful island. We were soon 

 surrounded by numbers of small boats loaded with a miscel- 

 laneous collection of aiticles, the owners anxious to dispose 

 of them to the best advantage amongst the passengers. When 

 we were informed that the ship would remain a few hours to 

 coal several of us lost no time in making for shore, and at 

 once set about to employ our time to the best advantage. 

 We were conveyed a considerable distance into the island iu 

 vehicles of rather a novel description, having no wheels, but 

 fixed on sliders and drawn by two or more bullocks, according 

 to the acclivity of the streets, which iu some parts teemed 

 almost perpendicular, and four bullocks had quite enough to 

 do to draw their light sledge containing four passengers. 

 Horses can also bo had for those who prefer them, and it is 



