On the Increase of Cryptogamoiis Plants^ i^'c. 437 



Art. II. So7ne Remarks on the Increase of Cryptogamous 

 Plants, and a Notice of a Disease ichich attacks the Melon 

 Vine. By N. Goodsell, Esq., Greece, Monroe Co., N, Y. 



Permit me, through the medium of your useful paper, to 

 make a few inquiries connected with those pursuits to which 

 its pages are devoted, and as you are favored with many 

 scientiiic correspondents, some of whom are undoubtedly ca- 

 pable of explaining many things which are not, at this time, 

 understood by a majority of your readers. 



First.— I would inquire whether it is supposed that na- 

 ture is producing any new species of plants; if not, then has 

 there been any new varieties which may have been produced 

 by cross breeding, which prove injurious to horticultural 

 productions 1 



Secondly. — Has there been any material change in the 

 atmosphere, by which a part of the vegetable kingdom is in- 

 jured, or the growth of others promoted? And, 



Lastly.— \N\-\iki efiect has altitude upon the vegetable king- 

 dom, when the mean temperature of the atmosphere is sim- 

 ilar ? 



I have been induced to make the above inquiries from ob- 

 serving what has appeared to me a wonderful increase of 

 cryptogamous plants, many of which prove very injurious, 

 (being parasitic,) to plants under cultivation. Scarcely a 

 year passes, but I discover some new injury of this kind, 

 some plant destroyed, which I have never known thus de- 

 stroyed before. 



The disease in potatoes, I have been convinced from my 

 first examination, was produced by cryptogamous plants, 

 whose roots, penetrating the flesh of the tuber, either pre- 

 vented the proper circulation necessary to its perfection, or 

 took up some elementary substance which contributed to the 

 formation of the farinaceous part, thereby inducing decom- 

 position in the remainder. 



Within the last few years, a new plant of the above fam- 

 ily (or, at least, new to me,) has made its appearance in this 

 vicinity upon the melon vines, which threatens to deprive us 

 of this luscious fruit. The influence of diff'erent soils does 

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