42 [ ASSEMBLY, 
the salt wells were first opened. Had any been introduced and 
established there since that time, was a question, the answer to 
which I wished to put on record. Nota single plant of this char- 
acter wasfound. The nearest approach to it is the common orache, 
Atriplex putula, which grows freely along the sea coast; but this 
plant is also capable of living and thriving in places remote from 
salt water or saline influences. It has followed the tracks. of our 
railroads till now it is a common plant along these thoroughfares 
in many places in the interior of the State. At Warsaw it is 
abundant, and occurs in several well-marked forms, thus showing 
well its disposition to vary. Its fondness for salt water, however, 
is shown by tho fact that it is especially vigorous along the ditches 
by which the waste brine is carried away, and it follows these for 
considerable distances. Some of the trees in the immediate vicinity 
of several factories were seen to be dead or dying. ‘Their death - 
was apparently due to the gaseous products of the combustion of 
coal which is used in rnnning the works. They were not in reach 
of the brine. 
Two opinions are entertained concerning the liability of plants 
to the attacks of parasitic fungi. Some claim that, no matter how 
vigorous and healthy a plant may be, if the spores of its parasite 
lodge upon it the result will be the development in it of the disease. 
which that parasite generates in that particular host plant. Others 
claim that there is a difference in the susceptibility of plants of the 
same species to the attacks of the same parasite; that a plant in a 
weak, starved or feeble condition is more likely to yield to and 
suffer from the attacks of its parasites than is one of the same 
species which is strong, well fed and vigorous. In other words, it 
is claimed that the vigorous plants, though exposed to the action 
of the spores of the parasite, have the power to resist the develop- 
ment of the disease and to remain healthy and unaffected; while © 
the more feeble ones, exposed to the action of the spores of the 
same parasite, yield to the disease and suffer therefrom. This last 
claim is one of great practical importance, and if it can be shown 
to be well founded, a knowledge of it may be useful. Two - 
instances illustrative of it fell under my observation the past 
season. 
At Warsaw a small patch of knotgrass, Polygonum aviculare, — 
was noticed. The plants were very small and starved in appear- | 
