204 SpJiacria Morbosa. 



quarter per cent of oxide of iron, about one and one-half per cent of 

 clay, one and one-quarter per cent of potash, with phosphoric acid and 

 carbonate of lime in small quantities, and only six and one-half per cent 

 of organic matter ; the rest, 85.427 per cent, being insoluble remainder. 

 Not a very rich soil, one would say ; yet this vineyard produces the finest 

 grapes of the district. Add to this the well-known fact, that when it be- 

 comes absolutely necessary to manure a vineyard, as happens in some 

 isolated cases, the succeeding crop of wine is either sold to the distillers 

 to be made into brandy, or without its proper name, lest it impair the 

 reputation of the vineyard ; and we must, I think, conclude that it is bad 

 husbandry to use manure in the vineyard. 



Mineral manures, phosphates and potashes, are indispensable to the 

 health and to the successful culture of the grape. Of these there is not 

 space to speak at this time. In another communication I shall have 

 something to say of them, and of some other essential preliminaries to 

 successful grape-growing. E. W. Bull. 



Concord, Mass. 



SPHAERIA MORBOSA. 



How many of our readers know what a Sphacria morbosa is ? Most 

 horticulturists, however, know it only too well under its more common name 

 of BLACK WART, when their plum-trees have been covered with it. Familiar 

 as the sight of its ugly excrescences may be, we imagine that many who have 

 suffered from its invasions may be uninformed as to its place in the vege- 

 table system. 



The Sphacria inorbosa is a fungus, belonging to a very extensive group, 

 which infests the bark of trees and shnibs. The different species are 

 found in myriads throughout the whole vegetable kingdom ; sometimes 

 preying upon living tissues, more frequently parasitic upon decaying mat- 

 ter. They vary in their mode of attack, or rather they occur in ditTerent 

 parts of the plants which support them. Some are superficial upon the 

 bark ; some are immersed in the sub-cuticular layer, bursting through the 

 cuticle, erumpent as they are termed ; others take possession of the inner 



