■No. 149.J 355 



the. potato, as yet unknown. Alarming accounts are given of it 

 and its march, and many persons dread lest th? wine of France 

 should he destroyed. It commenced in 1845, at Margate, near 

 London, in grape vine conservatories — there it appeared as white 

 -dust, covering vines, leaves and grapes, resembling wheat flour 

 or lime dust. The grapes soon stopped growing, began to crack 

 open, the juices all escaped, and soon nothing remained but dry 

 horny skins. The smell of these vines was very musty «nd dis- 

 agreeable. In 1848 the disease reached the suburbs of London. 

 In the towns of Clapham, Leyton, Bishop's Stortford, Islesworth, 

 and many cJther locations this appeared. In the latter, among 

 others, a rich gardener, by the name of Wilmot, gathered but one 

 bunch of grapes cut cf twelve conservatories; ; all the rest being 

 destroyed by this new malady ; and out of nineteen conserva- 

 tories, within a radius of six kilometres, (4 miles) thirteen were 

 attacked by it and their entire crops of grapes were destroyed, 

 and tae same result was found on the grape vines gromng m (he 

 open rir. 



It was hoped in France that it would not cross the channel — 

 tut it appeared in 1848, all at onccj in the grape conservatories 

 of Mr. de Rothschild, at Suresnes near Paris, and in the neighbor- 

 ing vineyards. In 1850 the vines in the immediate suburbs of Paris 

 were attacked by it grievously, and it invaded also the precious 

 collection of tlie grape vines of the world at the garden of Lux- 

 emburg. This malady is found to be a microscopic cryptogame, 

 a fungus, of which, particular descriptions are given, together 

 with drawings by the learned and Rev. Dr. Berkeley, of Bristol 

 in England, who examined it carefully and called it Oidium 

 Tuckeri, because a very able gardener of the name of Tucker 

 first brought the malady into notice. On careful examination in 

 France, the disease is precisely the same there as it is in England. 

 It attacked first the Frankenthal grape and the Chasselas under 

 gla s as well as in the open air ; then it assailed the red grapes in 

 the open air in that neighborhood. 



The learned and the practical vine dressers are full of the sub- 

 ject seeking for iha cause, the prevention or cure. It has attack- 

 ed various other vines besides the Frankenthal, Chasselas and 

 Red. But it was remarked that a Muscat of Alexandria Vine, 



