42 



the salt wells were first opened. Had any been introduced and 

 established there since that time, was a question, the answer to 

 which I wished to put on record. Not a single plant of this char- 

 acter was found. The nearest approach to it is the common orache, 

 Atriplex patula, which grows freely along the sea coast; but this 

 plant is also capable of living and thriving in places remote from 

 salt water or saline influences. It has followed' the tracks of our 

 railroads till now it is a common plant along these thoroughfares 

 in many places in the interior of the State. At Warsaw it is 

 abundant, and occurs in several well-marked forms, thus showing 

 well its dipsosition to vary. Its fondness for salt water, however, 

 is shown by the fact that it is especially vigorous along the ditches 

 by which the waste brine is carried away, and it follows these for 

 considerable distances. Some of the trees in the immediate vicinity 

 of several factories were seen to be dead or dying. Their death 

 was apparently due to the gaseous products of the combustion of 

 coal which is used in running the works. They were not in reach 

 of the brine. 



Two opinions are entertained concerning the liability of plants 

 to the attacks of parasitic fungi. Some claim that, no matter how 

 vigorous and healthy a plant may be, if the spores of its parasite 

 lodge upon it the result will be the development in it of the disease 

 which that parasite generates in that particular host plant. Others 

 claim that there is a difference in the susceptibility of plants of the 

 same species to the attacks of the same parasite; that a plant in a 

 weak, starved or feeble condition is more likely to yield to and 

 suffer from the attacks of its parasites than is one of the same 

 species which is strong, well fed and vigorous. In other words, it 

 is claimed that the vigorous plants, though exposed to the action 

 of the spores of the parasite, have the power to resist the develop- 

 ment of the disease and to remain healthy and unaffected; while 

 the more feeble ones, exposed to the action of the spores of the 

 same parasite, yield to the disease and suffer therefrom. This last 

 claim is one of great practical importance, and if it can be shown 

 to be well fownded, a knowledge of it may be useful. Two 

 instances illustrative of it fell under my observation the past 

 season. 



At Warsaw a small pa^ch of knotgrass, Polygonum aviculare, 

 was noticed. The plants were very small and starved in appear- 



I 



