DROPSY. 473 



the lesion, or breakage, of the young cells results. 

 This causes the death of a part or the whole of a 

 shoot. Although this may not injure the tree per- 

 manently, yet it gives it a very severe check. It 

 may be prevented by proper shelter. 



8. Dropsy. This is a disease which may not 

 closely resemble that to which this name is applied 

 in animal pathology, yet it is the best term that 

 can be used to express the idea. During a long 

 season of rainy weather the plant becomes gorged 

 with moisture ; the circulation is slow, and the 

 evaporation small. Growths made at such a season 

 are watery and tender, and the fruit is almost 

 without flavor. If this condition lasts for any 

 length of time, the fruit never ripens, and may 

 decay upon the tree ; the foliage of the young 

 shoots becomes white, or a sickly yellow, on account 

 of a deficiency of light; and both the fruit and 

 foliage drop off" prematurely. This disease scarcely 

 ever exists where the drainage of the soil has been 

 thorough (Berkeley). 



9. Sun-stroA'e — Desiccatio. This embraces the 

 drying up of the fluids in either the roots or the 

 foliage. The former may be occasioned by a drought, 

 particularly in undrained land, which bakes in the 

 sun ; or the latter may follow as a result of the 

 former, be occasioned by the work of insects, or 



40* 



