THE FUNGUS PESTS 



OF 



GARDEN PLANTS 



MANY of our garden plants are liable to the attacks of fungi. 

 Cures are in most instances unknown, but in some cases pre- 

 ventives which are better have been adopted with partial or entire 

 success. Plants raised from robust stocks, grown in suitable soil 

 and under favourable conditions, are known to be less liable to 

 disease than seedlings from feeble parents, or those which have 

 been rendered weakly by deficiencies in the soil and faulty cultiva- 

 tion. Whether weakness is hereditary, or is attributable to a bad 

 system, the fact remains that disease generally begins with unhealthy 

 specimens, and these form centres of contamination from which the 

 mischief spreads. It is, therefore, important that seed from healthy 

 stocks should be sown, and that a vigorous constitution should be 

 developed by good cultivation. 



Club, Anbury, or Finger-and-toe. The disease known by 

 these various names is common in the roots of brassicaceous plants^ 

 more especially Cabbages and Turnips. When the disorder has 

 made some progress insect agency frequently augments the mischief, 

 so that on cutting open a large decaying root it is not unusual to 

 find in the interior numbers of Millipedes, Weevils, Wireworms, and 

 other vermin. 



In certain soils Finger-and-toe is almost unknown; in others it 

 is so persistent a plague that a crop of Cabbage or Turnip can only 

 be produced with difficulty. As was demonstrated by the Russian 

 botanist, M. Woronin, the disease is caused by a fungus named 

 by him Plasmodiophora brassica. In addition to the cultivated 



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