339 



have been disturbed for many years), seem to prove that it has either 

 been planted there by the hand of Nature, or else by that of some bo- 

 tanist who has thought fit to help her in her operations. The first 

 plant that I saw there I procured, thinking (as it was not yet in 

 flower) that it might possibly prove to be N. poeticus. I was, however, 

 disappointed, but yet it in some measure repaid me to find an old 

 friend in so unexpected a locality. Orchards near farm-houses often 

 produce it abundantly, when its white flowers, intermixed with those 

 of N. Pseudo-narcissus, have really a most brilliant appearance. 



Robert C. R. Jordan. 

 Teignmouth, September 19, 1845. 



Remarks upon the Potato-murrain.^ By H. O. Stephens, Esq. 



The destruction of so large a portion of the potato crop is a cala- 

 mity of such magnitude, that it would necessarily occupy the attention 

 of this Society ; but when it is supposed this destruction is eff*ected 

 through the agency of a minute cryptogamic plant, the interest of the 

 inquiry is greatly increased, and the whole matter falls at once within 

 that department of Natural History for the cultivation of which tlie 

 Botanical Society of London was formed. 



Your Hon. Secretary has requested me to draw up a few remarks 

 on the potato-murrain, as it has been called, and it is only my desire 

 to be useful to the Society that emboldens me to forward these remarks, 

 which are very imperfect, being hastily put together amidst all man- 

 ner of interruptions. They must be regarded as sketches towards a 

 history of the disease, rather than as a complete description of the 

 phenomena in all their aspects. 



It will perhaps be better to enumerate the symptoms in succession, 

 commencing with the external and internal physical characters of the 

 disease, and then endeavour to ascertain if the immediate cause of the 

 decay of the foliage and tubers can be detected. 



The potato crop, at least in the district in which 1 reside, was, up 

 to a certain period, one of unusual promise, but it was generally ob- 

 served that the haulm was excessively luxuriant, and this rankness of 

 growth was attributed with justice to the excessive moisture of the 

 summer. Suddenly the leaves began to shrivel and roll backwards, 



* Read before the Botanical Society of London, 3id October, 1845. 



