4 io THE FUNGUS PESTS OF CERTAIN FLOWERS 



venienced when attacked, whilst a cultivated plant will speedily 

 succumb if attacked by the same fungus. This is the case in the 

 Sempervivum disease. In this country the common House Leek is the 

 nurse plant, and is seldom much injured ; but if the disease Endo- 

 phyllum sempervivi gets amongst greenhouse species, every plant may 

 be utterly destroyed. 



GLADIOLUS, CROCUS, NARCISSUS, and LILY DISEASES. In certain 

 soils and situations where the ground is heavy and the atmosphere 



inclined to be humid, the Gladio- 

 lus is very subject to a destructive 

 fungoid disease. This is especi- 

 ally the case in this country, and 

 during unusually wet summers. 

 The disease attacks the corm, and 

 corrodes and decomposes the tis- 

 sues, so that on cutting open a 

 corm, the whole interior, or such 

 parts as are diseased, will be found 

 permeated with a deep, foxy co- 

 lour. It is believed by some per- 

 sons that one stage of this disease 

 is identical with the disease named 

 'Tacon' by the French and in 

 this country known as 'Copper 

 Web,' Rhizoctonia crocorum. The 

 Rhizoctonia is a mere spawn or 

 mycelium, a mass of rusty-brown 

 material like a thick coating of 

 spider's web of a red tint. The 

 Rhizoctonia attacks the Crocus 

 (especially C. sativus), the Nar- 

 cissus, Asparagus, Potato, and 

 other plants. Immersed in the softer and damper portions of the red 

 substance of the corm, may frequently be found great numbers of 

 large compound spores, as illustrated at A, enlarged two hundred 

 and fifty diameters. These bodies belong to the fungus named 

 Urocystis Gladioli', but whether they really belong to the spawn 

 named Rhizoctonia there is no conclusive evidence, as the spores 

 have never been seen on the threads or upon any spawn. The 

 spores are very ornamental objects, consisting of from three to six 



FUNGI OF GLADIOLI, LILIES, ETC. 

 Urocystis Gladioli and Ovularia elliptica 



