230 FUNGI. 



Roses have to contend against the two forms of PJirar/midium 

 mucrsnatum as well as Asteroma Bosce. Still more disastrous 

 is a species of Erysiphei, which at first appears like a dense 

 white mould. This is named SpJicerotheca pannosa. Nor is this 

 all, for Peronospora sparsa, when it attacks roses in conservatories, 

 is merciless in its exactions.* Sometimes violets will be distorted 

 and spoiled by Urocystis Viola. The garden anemone is freely 

 attacked by JEcidium qiiadrifidum. Orchids are liable to spot 

 from fungi on the leaves, and recently the whole of the choicest 

 hollyhocks have been threatened with destruction by a merciless 

 foe in Puccinia malvacearum. This fungus was first made known 

 to the world as an inhabitant of South America many years ago. 

 It seems next to have come into notoriety in the Australian 

 colonies. Then two or three years ago we hear of it for the 

 first time on the continent of Europe, and last year for the first 

 time in any threatening form in our own islands. During the 

 present year its ravages are spreading, nntil all admirers of 

 hollyhocks begin to feel alarm lest it should entirely exterminate 

 the hollyhock from cultivation. It is common on wild mallows, 

 and cotton cultivators must be on the alert, for there is a 

 probability that other malvaceous plants may suffer. 



A writer in the " Gardener's Chronicle " has proposed a remedy 

 for the hollyhock disease, which he hopes will prove effectual. 

 He says, " This terrible disease has now, for twelve months, 

 threatened the complete annihilation of the glorious family of 

 hollyhock, and to baffle all the antidotes that the ingenuity of 

 man could suggest, so rapidly does it spread and accomplish its 

 deadly work. Of this 1 have hud very sad evidence, as last 

 year at this time I had charge of, if not the largest, one of the 

 largest and finest collections of hollyhocks anywhere in cultiva- 

 tion, which had been under my special care for eleven years, 

 and up to within a month of my resigning that position I had 

 observed nothing uncommon amongst them; but before taking 

 ray final leave of them I had to witness the melancholy spectacle 

 of bed after bed being smitten down, and amongst them many 

 splendid seedlings, which had cost me years of patience and 



* Berkcl-y, in "Gardener's Chronicle," 1862, p. 308. 



