March 14, 1912. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review- 



27 



to follow each other in rapid succession, 

 all dying within the course of two 

 weeks. Experiments in the laboratory 

 confirm these observations in nature. 



There is one peculiar condition in the 

 life history of this fungus that is of 

 such great economical importance that 

 we will lay especial stress upon it at 

 this time. This fungus, so far as we 

 know now, never produces spores. 

 Spores are the seed of fungi, which are 

 usually much more resistant to drying, 

 freezing and other adverse conditions 

 than the vegetative part of the fungus. 

 Just as you keep your seed over winter 

 in a dry condition which would be fatal 

 to the plant, so the sports of the fungi 

 are able to pass long periods of drought 

 and are again able to germinate when 

 placed in moist conditions. Further- 

 more, these spores or seeds are usually 

 produced on the aerial part of the plant, 

 so that the drafts of air scatter thou- 

 sands of them throughout the house or 

 over the field. Also they are caught on 

 the hands or tools of the workman or 

 on the bodies of insects and so spread 

 abroad to infect other plants. 



The Way Sust Spreads. 



This is the way the rust is spread — the 

 red masses seen on the leaves consisting 

 of thousands of spores. Also the dry 

 stem-rot, the spores of which form a 

 pink mass, is spread in this manner. 

 But in the case of the Bhizoctonia or 

 wet stem-rot no such seed is produced, 

 and while it is always advisable to use 

 care in removing a plant from the 

 house, no great precautions are actually 

 necessary in the case of this disease. 

 As mentioned before, the removal of 

 aa much soil as possible along with the 

 rotted plant is the essential precaution. 

 The fungus spreads by growing through 

 the soil. But this fungus has certain 

 bodies which take the place of the 

 spores in some particulars. If the stalk 

 of a stem-rotted plant is carefully ex- 

 amined, many little black or purple 

 specks may sometimes be observed in 

 the crevices of the bark or just under 

 this bark next to the "wood" of the 

 plant. These specks vary in size from 

 half the 'Hize of a pin head to a flat 

 cushion-like mass one-fourth inch in 

 diameter. These bodies, called sclero- 

 tia, are made up of more or less re- 

 sistant cells which have the power of 

 germination just as do the spores. They 

 are often found in the soil independent 

 of the plant and may here be much 

 larger than those next the stem of a 

 plant. These bodies are in a resting 

 condition and do not germinate except 

 in the presence of abundant moisture. 

 To determine just how resistant these 

 bodies are to drying, heat and chem- 

 ical reagents is the purpose of a series 

 of experiments now being carried out in 

 our laboratory, but not yet completed. 

 Two things are established beyond any 

 doubt whatever: First, the cells of 

 these bodies will not germinate after 

 drying in the open air for several 

 weeks; second, freezing has no harm- 

 ful effect on them, since they will ger- 

 minate after being frozen for several 

 days. 



Among other experiments, we have 

 attempted to determine the effect of 

 this fungus upon cuttings. In this exper- 

 iment the sand was thoroughly inocu- 

 lated with the fungus shortly before the 

 cuttings were introduced. Cuttings 

 placed in such sand were at once at- 

 tacked at the cut surface and on the 

 stem where the leaves had been 



r<c 



Gtfoation House of Daut Bros., Decatur, III. 



stripped from the node. No chance is 

 given for the formation of a callus or 

 of rootlets, so that the cutting soon 

 wilts and dies, resembling in external 

 appearance those cuttings which are 

 not firmly fixed in the sand and there- 

 fore wilt in a few days after being 

 placed. Upon closer examination, how- 

 ever, the brown threads of the fungus 

 can be seen covering the lower part of 

 the cutting and often a sclerotium is 

 formed on the cut end of the plant. 



It is well known that this fungus 

 often causes damping off of various 

 seedlings, but what part it plays in the 

 damping off of carnation cuttings is 

 yet to be determined. We will be espe- 

 cially glad to receive cuttings suffer- 

 ing from the effect of the "cutting 

 bench fungus" or "damping off." 

 There are several kinds of fungi de- 

 ■ scribed as the "cutting bed fungus" 

 and we are anxious to determine what 

 forms are most harmful in this state. 



Experiments in Progress. 



In concluding our report on this par- 

 ticular disease we will mention a few 

 of the experiments which are being car- 

 ried out but not yet complete. 



1. A determination of the resistance 

 of the sclerotia to various physical and 

 chemical agents. 



2. Effect of various methods of soil 

 sterilization both upon the carnation 

 plant itself and upon the fungus. It 

 may be said in this connection that 

 sterilization by steam easily kills the 

 fungus in the soil, but so changes the 

 soil that the carnation does not make a 

 normal growth. It is expected that 

 other methods of soil sterilization will 

 overcome this difficulty. 



3. Various strains of this fungus 

 taken from plants other than the carna- 

 tion are to be tested in regard to their 

 effect upon the carnation. 



4. The infectious power of this fun- 

 gus upon the carnation in various 

 stages of its growth is being investi- 

 gated. 



5. The various physical conditions 

 supposed to increase the virulence of 

 this fungus or the susceptibility of the 



plant will be considered in a scries of 

 experiments. 



6. A continuation and duplication of 

 the experiments mentioned in the body 

 of this paper is considered necessary. 



Aside from the wet stem-rot of car- 

 nations which has taken most of oul 

 time, we have undertaken minor inves- 

 tigations on less important carnation 

 diseases. 



[To bo concluded.] 



DAUTS' CARNATION HOUSE. 

 The accompanying illustration shows 

 one of the carnation houses of Daut 

 Bros., Decatur, 111., who are successors 

 to Mrs. Katherina Daut. This house 

 was planted July 5 and the photograph 

 taken December 20, 1911. They grow 

 all the Enchantress varieties. Beacon, 

 Victory and Afterglow. Washington, 

 they say, has proved all that was 

 claimed for it and they will plant it in 

 the place of Afterglow next season. 

 Their place consists of ten houses, 35,000 

 feet of glass. They grow a general line 

 of cut flowers and potted plants for 

 retail trade, for which they find ready 

 sale at their store at 112 East Prairie 

 street. 



WASHINGTON CLUB MEETING. 



The Florists' CTub of Washington, in 

 connection with the regular March 

 meeting, held an election of officers for 

 the ensuing year. Outside of the posi- 

 tion of trustee, for which there were a 

 number of candidates, there was little 

 or no contest. The results were as fol- 

 lows: President, David J. Grillbortzer; 

 vice-president. Otto Bauer; secretary, 

 0. A. C. Oehmler; treasurer, William F. 

 Gude; trustees, George Cooke and 

 George Fields. 



A report was rendered regarding the 

 cooperation of the club to be given 

 Miss Sipe, who is endeavoring to get 

 the 55,000 public school children inter- 

 ested in the growing of flowers. She 

 recently held a voting contest in which 

 the children endeavored to pick out 

 some flower to be grown in front yard* 

 and waste places, in window boxes, etc. 

 They naturally selected roses or carna- 

 tions, neither of which is suitable for 

 the purpose. Another contest resulted 



