1891.] ESSAYS. 77 



they ripen are carried off by the wind. The spawn threads are 

 here and there dotted over with little black grains, each grain so 

 small as to be invisi1)le without a common magnifying glass. 

 Under a strong hand lens, the dots look like minute but perfectly 

 round grains of gunpowder. Each dot is seen as a round black 

 box with a number of curious, brown, sinuous, radiating appen- 

 dages. Each globular box is no larger than the point of a 

 needle. There is a comparatively thick outer coat to this box 

 made up of minute pieces, spliced or dove-tailed together like 

 the shell of the tortoise. 



One infected rose leaf will in the autumn bear hundreds of 

 these black boxes, each with its contained air-tight bladder of 

 eight living spores ; the precious boxes are quite impervious to 

 drouth, frost, or water. 



Another of the worst diseases of the rose, is the Orange Fungus, 

 Goleosporiwn pingue, which in its earlier stages is pale yellow, 

 then becomes orange, vermilion, brown, and at length black.* 



Mildew does not seem seriously to atfect the life or strength 

 of the plant, as being a surface disease it does not strike to its 

 marrow. For instance, the rose Comtesse de Serenye is one of 

 the worst for mildew I have ever known, and yet it is a rose 

 that grows with great vigor from year to year. In fact, mil- 

 dew does not claim as its victims the weakest s^rowers, but takes 

 the strongest, such as that splendid variety Mme. Gabriel Luizet, 

 and others of a like character. The last of July and August is 

 the time to be on the watch for it, when cool nights follow warm 

 days. You must then be ready the next morning with your 

 sulphur bellows, for the enemy will surely be there ! If all 

 affected leaves could be gathered and burned (which would be 

 quite possible in a small collection) the chances of transmitting 

 the disease would be greatly lessened. 



Orange Rust or Fungus, is the reverse in its action of mildew, 

 coming from the inside of the leaves and stem. jNIr. G. Baker 

 says, "Orange Fungus chiefly attacks the lower leaves of the 

 smooth-wooded class of rose plants, such as Victor Verdier, 



* The Rose Mildew is described and figured in tlie Journal of IJorticulture and 

 Cottage Gardener, Vol. 72, pages 478, 479; in the Rosarian's Year Book for 1886, pp. 

 4-14. and in Paul's Rose Garden, 9th edition, pp. 146-148. The Orange Fungus is de- 

 scribed and figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle, Vol. 26, New Series, pages 76, 77; iu 

 the Rosarian's Year Book for 1887, pp. 4-lo, and in Paul's Rose Garden, pp. 151, 152. 



