CHAPTEE VIII. 



NEW DISEASE OF ONIONS. 

 Puccinia mixta, Fl. 



THERE are few kitchen-garden crops more liable to dis- 

 ease than onions, and in the best managed fields and 

 kitchen gardens, and in dry as well as wet seasons, whole 

 crops of onions, and all varieties alike, are liable to be 

 swept off by the attacks of fungi. 



During the summer of 1883 great attention was directed 

 to a fungus named Puccinia mixta, FL, found growing 

 on chives, near Shrewsbury. The name of the genus Puc- 

 cinia was given in honour of Puccini, a Florentine professor. 

 When we remember how completely Puccinia malvacearum, 

 Mont., has, during the last few years, destroyed all our 

 best garden hollyhocks, we may well feel some anxiety as 

 to the course this new pest of onions may pursue. Mr. 

 William Phillips, F.L.S., of Shrewsbury, was the first to 

 detect the onion parasite, named Puccinia mixta, FL, grow- 

 ing in a garden. Mr. Phillips recorded its occurrence in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle for 14th July 1883, and there 

 stated that the parasite was growing on chives, Allium 

 Schcenoprasum, L., and the crop, he said, was in a de- 

 plorable condition of disease, the leaves and scapes, or 

 naked flower-stems, being covered with yellow and brown 

 spots, and presenting a miserable appearance. Mr. Phillips 

 was good enough to forward some specimens to us at the 

 time of finding, and from these examples the illustrations 

 have been made. 



Chives are perennial and indigenous to Britain. They 

 are grown to no great extent in England, but in Scotland 



