220 CULTURE OF THE <i RAPE. 



full-grown berries. Those attacked on their surface or on 

 their pedicles soon fall off: but the most material damage 

 is done by the mildew infesting the leaves; whereupon 

 the greater part of the berries will gradually turn yellow- 

 ish-brown at their base, shrivel from that point, assume 

 a club shape, and at last dry up entirely, usually remain- 

 ing adherent to the withered racemes. This is the brown 

 rot, so well known to all cultivators to their dismay. The 

 second kind of rot, the black rot, is brought on by a very 

 different fungus, which Dr. Engleman thinks is undescribed 

 by botanists. It evidently belongs near Ehrenberg's ge- 

 nus Ncemaspora, and ought to bear the name Ampeli- 

 cida. It makes its appearance only on nearly full-grown 

 berries, exhibiting in the first stage a discolored spot on 

 the side, but never at the base, of the berry, about two 

 lines in diameter, with a dark spot in the centre. This 

 spot soon becomes light brown, and remains so ; while the 

 surrounding part of the berry gets darker, and exhibits a 

 rough or (under the magnifier) pustulous surface : gradu- 

 ally now the berry shrivels up, and becomes black. The 

 individual fungi are little spherical bodies (0.07-0.10 

 line in diameter), formed under the surface in great num- 

 bers, which, growing, elevate, and at last burst, the epi- 

 dermis; then open at their apex by a small, jagged hole 



