THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



69 



APPLE-LEAP " CLUSTER-CUPS." 



There is a peculiar kind of orange-colored 

 fiiiigiis, which we have noticed for a long time 

 to be exceedingly abundant in particular sea- 

 sons on the leaves of [Fis. 43.] 

 the wild crab (Fyrus 

 coronaria). On the 

 upper surface of the 

 leaf it appears early 

 in the season as a 

 large orange-colored 

 blotch ; and sonie- 

 wliat later in the 

 yeai', if the under 

 surface of the leaf is 

 examined, it pre- 

 sents the appear- . ■, 1j^ 1/ 7 

 ance of Figure 4r>.* ^ \ \ -^^^fe / / 

 If we apply a moder- 

 ately powerful lens 

 to tlie little circle of 

 dots exhibited in 

 this drawing, we 

 shall see that each 



, . , n- . , Ciiloi-s— Orange, the ring blackish. 



dot, when sufficient- 

 ly magnified, is ajittle miracle of vegetable struc- 

 ture, and looks very much like one of those Sea 

 Anemones (Actinia), with which the popular eye 

 has now become sutBciently familiarized through 

 sucli elegant little works as the Seaside Studies.-f 

 In Figure -14 we give a view ot one of these 

 magnified dots, several scores of wliich go to 

 compose the complete circle shown in Figure 43 

 It will thus be seen that each 

 dot forms a regular cylinder 

 of great beauty, with an ap- 

 erture at its summit fringed 

 with long transparent hairs, 

 which are very sensitive to 

 moisture and curl up when 

 wetted so as to close the ap- 

 erture. Inside the cylinder, coiur— Oranse, vari.d 

 under a good microscope, we "'"' iJ'own-biack 

 may discover a mass of minute brownish 

 grains, which are technically termed " spores," 

 and though they are much simpler in tlieir 

 structure than the true seeds of Flowering 

 riants, they yet perform precisely the same func- 

 tion in nature, that is, the reproduction of the 

 species. This particular group of parasitic fun- 

 guses are known in English as " Cluster-cups," 

 and ttie particular species that we now have 



•We reproduce this, as well as the following figure, from 

 an excellent Article on this subject in the American Aijricul- 

 luriat for December, 18G8, to which we are also indebted :or 

 several of the details given herewith . 



tSee Seaside Studies in Natural Hiatonj, by Mrs. E. C. 

 Agassiz and A, Agassiz, page S, figures 3, 4 and .t. 



to deal with may be called the "Apple-leaf 

 Cluster-cup" {(Ecidium pyratum, Schweinitz). 



As we have already said, the native home of 

 our Apple-leaf Cluster-cup is on the indigenous 

 crab of North America; but like many such 

 parasitic growths it has acquired the habit of 

 attacking one or more imported plants, which 

 are closely allied to the species which in the 

 first instance it must have exclusively infested. 

 Four or five years ago we received from J. 

 Wood, of ^Marietta, Ohio, specimens that had 

 been found on the leaves of the common Apple- 

 tree; and the American Agriculturist lately 

 received such from T. W. Sparkman, of Clifton, 

 Tenn., with the following statement: "This 

 disease has prevailed among some trees in this 

 vicinity several years ; it gradually gets worse, 

 and the trees fail until they at length die. One 

 of the worst trees is a wild Crab Apple. There 

 are a great many limbs attacked and some of 

 the apples." Lastly, we have been informed 

 by Mr. McLane, of Charleston, Central Illinois, 

 that in 18G9 his Fall Rainbos were so full of these 

 Cluster-cups, that more than one-half the leaves 

 were infested by them ; and that in consequence, 

 although the fruit was partially perfected, it 

 dropped off" prematurely in a more or less de- 

 fective condition. 



From the recorded history of Noxious Fun- 

 guses and Noxibus Insects, we may consider it 

 as by no means an improbable event, now that 

 this indigenous fungus has acquired the habit 

 of attacking an imported plant, that it will 

 transmit that habit, by the Laws of Inheritance, 

 to its descendants, and thus eventually, by the 

 multiplication ol individuals possessing the 

 newly-acquired taste, become a great pest to 

 the Fruit-grower. It is well, therefore, to put 

 our readers on their guard against this little 

 pest; for although, strictly speaking, such mat- 

 ters belong to the Botanist rather than to the 

 Entomologist, yet by a kind of tacit consent the 

 study of our Funguses has been bandied about 

 "from pillar to post" among the different 

 Specialists in Natural History, till like Noah's 

 dove it can scarcely find any resting place for 

 the sole of its foot. ' 



As to remedies against this Parasitic Dis- 

 ease: Whenever an enti?'e apple-tree has be- 

 come badly infested, it would be advisable to 

 cut it down and burn it, before the infection 

 becomes widely disseminated. If only a few 

 leaves or a few boughs are attacked, they should 

 for the same reason be gathered by hand and 

 burnt; but in doing this, care must be taken to 

 perform the operation before the little cups, 

 from which these " Cluster^cnps " take their 



