148 



Commercial Gardening 



than was attempted to be made out of the advent on European shores of 

 the American Gooseberry Mildew. According to various authorities, and 

 for divers reasons, the fate of the British Empire has frequently hung in 

 the balance, and only required the final tip, which happily never was 

 administered, to send it headlong to destruction, but never before was the 

 Empire so near the verge of destruction, as when this parasite made its 

 home amongst us. The mildew is admittedly a very serious scourge to 

 Gooseberries, and it was extremely impolitic, to say the least, of a person 



A 



Fig. 374. American Gooseberry Mildew 



A, Leaves and fruit attacked (nat. size). B, Ascus from winter fruit containing 8 spores, x 400. C, Perithecia 

 or winter form of fruit, x 150. D, Conidial or summer form of reproduction, x 200. 



supplicating for the presence of the said disease only a few years after its 

 advent, in order that it might reduce the quantity of gooseberries, which 

 on account of an exceptionally good crop throughout the country, could not 

 be sold at a profit. Soon after its occurrence in Ireland it appeared in 

 considerable abundance in Worcestershire in the Evesham district, and a 

 small amount was met with on one standard Gooseberry on a Ribes aureum 

 stock in Kent. At the present day the mildew occurs in various districts 

 in England, being especially abundant in the neighbourhood of the Wash. 

 American Gooseberry Mildew has also appeared on the Continent, in 

 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, and Russia. It has been 

 stated that the disease was introduced into Ireland and the Continent from 



