930 



bers presented brownish yellow spottings, and cracked through the 

 epidermis into deep fissures, an appearance very different to the dis- 

 ease of 1845 and 6. Possibly this might have been the effect of the 

 hot and dry weather. There was no spotting or the slightest traces 

 of the Botrytis infestans on the leaves. 



At the recommendation of an Aphidean, the haulm of these plants 

 had been copiously dusted with lime, in order to destroy a non-exist- 

 ent source of evil. 



The conditions of these plants certainly were unlike those diseased 

 with the murrain of 1845 and 6. 



In the last week of July, intelligence of such a pointed nature 

 reached me from a friend, that the potato-disease of last year had 

 suddenly shown itself in the parish in which he resided, that I could 

 not doubt the fact of the identity. I visited this parish, Newton St. 

 Loe, near Bath, and found the statement of my friend but too correct. 

 If I had been led into the field blindfolded, I could have sworn to 

 the presence of the murrain by the peculiar stench emitted from the 

 foliage. The disease occupied only a portion of the field, and this 

 affected spot contained within its bounds patches of plants variously 

 affected in intensity of disease, from a scattered spotting of the leaves, 

 to complete rottenness of the whole haulm. The worst spots or 

 patches of disease were in isolated portions, scattered throughout the 

 comparatively healthy parts of the crop. 



The foliage of these plants was spotted with the blackened sphace- 

 lations of the old murrain, and invariably presented abundance of the 

 Botrytis infestans. 



I have invariably found this fungus on the leaves and stalks of dis- 

 eased potatoes, and should, if guided by my own observations alone, 

 consider its presence as diagnostic of the malady. I presume our 

 Editor will admit that the disease of 1845 and 6 has re-appeared in 

 this locality in 1847. I trust and believe, however, not in its epide- 

 mic, or rather epiphytic form, but as a local or sporadic occurrence. 



Potatoes are at present abundant in our market, large, fully deve- 

 loped, and full of starch, very different in appearance and quality 

 from the watery tubers of last year. I trust the late crop will prove 

 as good and abundant as the early : up to this time there is every 

 prospect of it. If the potato-murrain does not become general upon 

 the great fall of temperature we have just suffered, I think there is 

 every probability this may be the case. 



