STRAWBERRY. 83 



DISEASES AND INSECTS. 



The Strawberry is peculiarly exempt from disease, 

 there being none which affects it to any considerable extent. 

 Sometimes a sudden change of weather will cause the 

 flowers to blight, and no fruit will be produced ; but this 

 cannot be classed as a disease, but merely as an accidental 

 cause of failure. In warm, wet weather, the fruit and 

 leaf-stalks will be affected by mildew, and the leaves at- 

 tacked by a kind of rust which is called in Europe Straw- 

 berry brand (Aregma obtusatum). Mr. Cooke, in his late 

 work on Microscopic Fungi, has given a description and 

 highly magnified illustration of this species, which we 



quote, figure 24. The 

 spores are produced in 

 clusters on the upper side 

 of the leaves, and appear 

 like minute yellow spots 

 to the naked eye, but 

 under a magnifying lens 

 they have the form shown 



Fig. 24.-STBAWBEBBT BRAND. m ^ ^^ illustration . 



As this fungus makes its appearance late in the season 

 it causes but very little injury. 



Insects are more injurious to the Strawberry than any 

 disease that has yet appeared. 



The most destructive of these is probably the larva 

 of the common May Beetle, formerly called Melolontha, 

 but now placed in the genus Lachnosterna. The grub 

 (larva), when fully grown, is about an inch and a half 

 long, and three-eighths thick, nearly white, with a brown 

 head, and commonly called the White Grub. 



These grubs are usually more numerous in old dry 

 pastures and meadows than elsewhere, because their prin- 

 cipal food is the roots of different kinds of grass. The old 

 sods afford protection against the birds and animals which 



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