4 
4 
38 
microscopic threads which grow through the substance of the asparagus plant, taking 
up the nourishment that is needed (by the plant itself) and finally breaking through 
the surface to bear the innumerable brown spores that give the dark-brown color to 
the spots on the asparagus skins. This is the last stage in the development of the 
rust fungus, and as such it remains over winter. When the warm, moist weather of 
spring and summer comes, the spores above mentioned germinate, and a new lot 
of asparagus plants may become infected. 
In the Botanist Report of the New Jersey Experiment Stations for 
1896, Professor Halsted has, among other remarks, this to say about 
the asparagus rust attack of that year: 
The writer has never met with any species of rust that was so overwhelming in its 
attack. Fields, for example, of a dozen acres would not have a plant, and scarcely 
a square inch of surface, free from the pustules. It attacks all ages of plants, but 


—= 
W. SCHOLL DEL, 

Fic. 13.—The asparagus anthracnose (Colletotrichum sp.). (Redrawn; from Report, 1896, New Jersey 
Agricultural Experiment Stations.) 
the older beds turned brown first, and the last to lose their usual green color were 
the seedlings. The brush is reduced to the main stems, the finer portions having 
become thoroughly affected and fallen away. Portions of stems of older plants are 
shown in fig. 12, where the rifts in the skin may be seen and the spore masses appear 
as dark blotches. 
All varieties of asparagus grown in this country seem to be readily 
affected by the rust, the Palmetto being less susceptible than any 
others. Professor Halsted places it at 60 on a basis of 100. Claim is 
also made by European growers that the Yellow Burgundy is almost 
rust proof. 
The rust has been reported from New England generally, Long Island, 
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Iowa, 
Indiana, Ohio, and South Carolina, From the interest taken in the 
