DISEASES OF THE PLANT. 313 



and so causing death. It is possible that this might have 

 been a result of the "Oidium," the poison having been 

 carried down to the root by the spiral vessels of the 

 leaves, and that this changed effect of its attack may 

 have been due to some constitutional weakness of the 

 crop, aggravated probably by high cultivation. 



There is another disease, however, which is still a 

 vexata questio with scientific as well as with practical 

 men; that is, the "fingers-and-toes/' or "anbury/' as it 

 is generally and indiscriminately termed. This has been 

 the subject of a vast amount of discussion and of writing 

 by good practical men, and by some few scientific men, 

 who seem generally to take different views on the subject, 

 neither of them, however, being able to decide the 

 question in a mutually satisfactory way. This is not 

 surprising, as, indeed, it has never yet been investigated in 

 the careful manner its importance to physiological botany 

 deserves. The chemist appears, however, to have been 

 appealed to with greater success than the botanist, as in 

 1852 the Highland Society drew up and issued a circular 

 embodying a series of questions of a practical character, 

 the replies to which were remitted to Drs. Anderson and 

 Balfour to investigate and report upon, both in a chemical 

 and botanical point of view. 



The chemical portion was carefully worked out and 

 reported on by Dr. Anderson in the following year. 1 

 After summing up the replies to the circular of queries, he 

 says, "Such are the results of the inquiries made among 

 some of the most skilful farmers in all parts of Scotland, 

 results which, as it will be at once apparent, are of a very 

 conflicting nature much more so than could possibly 

 have been anticipated. It appears, indeed, that not only 

 do remarkable differences of opinion exist among different 

 persons, but in some instances an individual reporter 

 1 Trans. High. Soc., 1853, p. 118. 



