CH. Tin.] THE DISEASES OF PLANTS. *26l 



The Amhury ^, Anbury, Hanhury, or club root. 

 The deficiency of knowledge relative to the diseases 

 of plants, is well illustrated by the imperfect and 

 inaccui'ate observations that have been adventured 

 upon this disease. Where there is much difference of 

 opinion there is little real knowledge, and both these 

 are certainly the case in the instance before us. 

 Some cultivators assert that the disease arises from 

 a variableness and unfavourable state of the seasons ; 

 a second 2)arty of theorists advance, that it is caused 

 by insects ; and a third, that it is owing to a too fre- 

 quent growth of the same crop upon the same site. 



Every man having formed an opinion, usually 

 clings to it pertinaciously, and sets its estimate far 

 above its real value, or correctness, 



" *Tis with our judgments as our watches ; none 

 Gro just alike^ yet each believes his own." 



The chief error appears to be in considering any 

 of the above enumerated causes as the exclusive one, 

 for, beyond doubt,, they each contribute, either im- 



• This, the correct name, is evidently derived from the Saxon 

 word atmhre, a wart suffused with blood, to which horses are 

 subject. In Holdemess, a district of Yorkshire, this disease is 

 known as " Fingers and Toes," from its causing the tap-root of the 

 turnip to be divided into swollen fibres, resembling those members 

 of the human body. On this Mr. Spence, the entomologist, wrote a 

 very sensible pamphlet, entitled " Observations on the Diseases in 

 Turnips termed in Holdemess, ' Finger and Toes.' Hull, 1812." 



