2l8 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXII. No. 556 



nomic interest of the lower orders of vegetable life was 

 not well understood. 



It is a source of pleasure to be able to name the com- 

 mon flowering plants, and the practice in analysis is good; 

 but the teacher might better tell the names of the plants 

 and save the time for more important work if the pupil 

 can spend only one term upon the study, and as for the 

 analysis, experience shows that a large jyavt of the work 

 not done under the supervision of the teacher is accom- 

 plished by ascertaining the common name and then going 

 to the index. 



Some teachers who have followed the old line in ele- 

 mentary botanical instruction will hardly be convinced 

 that other matter should precede. They think that 

 phanerogams are the most noticeable plants and should 

 therefore be studied a whole term even if the lower forms 

 are never known. The fact that they are so noticeable 

 that any one who is really interested and who has had 

 some work in observing and describing phanerogams will 

 learn their names by analyzing, or in some other way, is 

 my reason why the limited time often given to the study 

 should not be devoted exclusively to this class of jjlants. 



Some who have been going on in the old rut will con- 

 tend that phanerogams were the first plants investigated, 

 and that the order of presentation should follow that of 

 investigation. Let us see. In geology, investigation be- 

 gan at the surface, with the latest formation ; but in the 

 study we begin with the deepest stratified rocks, the first 

 formation. In zoology the highest forms of life were first 

 studied and first present themselves to the observer, but 

 here again the order of presentation has been changed so 

 that it is the reverse of that of investigation. 



However, I think it is not of so much importance where 

 we begin as that we give first a general knowledge of the 

 orders of plants. If those who have been confining their 

 work to flowering plants will give half of it to cryptogams 

 I will not find much fault with them for beginning with 

 the highest order. Yet I think I have proven that the 

 other way is as good without even introducing the prin- 

 ciple of going from the simple to the more complex. 



Every one who studies botany at all should learn some- 

 thing about bacteria, which play so important a part in 

 our welfare. The same may be said of the economic 

 smuts, mildews and rusts, and many other forms that I 

 need not mention. Vegetable physiology should also 

 form an important part of the work of the first term if it 

 is to be the only one, and the necessary time can be gained 

 by omitting the analysis of so many phanerogams and 

 substituting the examination and description of a plant 

 from each of the more common orders, using the micro- 

 scope when necessary. 



Instead of the old plan I would have all schools, during 

 the first term, take up the orders, proceeding from the 

 lowest to the highest, and close the work with the leading 

 facts of vegetable physiology. I would divide the time 

 equally between cryptogams, phanerogams and physi- 

 ology. This both gives the best foundation on which to 

 build, and is the most essential knowledge for the student 

 who can not give more time to the subject. 



FUNGI VERSUS INSECTS. 



BY aEBAlD MCCARTHYK, EALEIGH, N. C. 



During the last twenty years the number of species of 

 noxious fungi and insects infesting American fields, or- 

 chards, woods and storehouses has increased at a most 

 alarming rate, with a commensurate increase in the 

 damage they inflict. The time was when the substantial- 

 ly complete destruction of any crop by these pests was 

 so rare as to be regarded as a special visitation of Provi- 

 dence. This increase is undoubtedly due to the perfec- 



tion of modern commerce, which has made cosmopolitans 

 of species formerly restricted in habitat, and to the op- 

 portunity for rapid multiplication that our large solidly 

 planted fields afford. Notwithstanding the vast amount 

 of study which has during the same decades been devoted 

 to these pests and the many difi'erentforms of apparatus, 

 formulas and methods which have been devised for com- 

 batting them, the damage still done is very serious. In 

 fact intelligent and practical men say that the claims put 

 forth by economic scientists have not been fulfilled. 

 While the copper salts against fungi and the arsenites and 

 kerosene against insects have in individual cases given 

 good results, they have not apparently reduced the num- 

 bers of these pests. The use of these substances, too, is 

 not without drawbacks. The acrid copper mixtures 

 often damage the trees or plants nearly as much as the 

 fungi would have done, and fruit plastered with these 

 chemicals does not sell well. To be sure, it is not neces- 

 sary to plaster fruit with the fungicide, nevertheless it is 

 done, and where spraying is in general use the fruit as 

 marketed is seldom free from its presence. An example 

 of this, which has made a vivid impression uj)on my mind 

 and stomach, is a lot of Catawba grapes grown near Se- 

 neca Lake, N. Y., and sold in Raleigh, N. C. These grapes 

 were considerably spotted with the Bordeaux mixture. 

 As an experiment I purchased and ate a bunch of these 

 grapes, rejecting the skins, — an experiment I am not 

 likely to repeat very soon ! The flavor was quite spoiled 

 by the presence of the chemicals, and the effect upon the di- 

 gestive organs was anything but pleasant. The use of 

 chemical fungicides, like the use of patent medicines for 

 human ailments, has a tendency to cause the user to neg- 

 lect hygienic precautions, since these latter require more 

 foresight and labor than the former. In spite of all that 

 fungicides have done, the annual losses caused by noxious 

 fungi are still, for the United States alone, $300,000,000. 



The losses occasioned by noxious insects are scarcely 

 smaller. In a single year Illinois has lost $75,000,000 

 by the clinch bug and Texas has lost 120,000,000 by the 

 cotton caterpillar. 



The capital fault in all topical treatment of these pests 

 is that it is effective only so far as the treatment goes, 

 and for the time being. Let us suppose A., B. and C. to 

 be neighboring fruit growers. A takes every practi- 

 cable hygienic precaution by burning all infectious mat- 

 ter, and by cultivation and fertilization stimulates his 

 crops to outgrow their enemies. B has unlimites faith 

 in his "pizen," and apj^lies it with a liberal hand. C is a 

 "one-horse" farmer and has no faith in anything. He 

 lets the bugs alone. The net result is that C grows 

 more fungi and insects than fruit, and enough to devas- 

 tate his neighbors' crops after his own are ruined. B 

 has bespattered his trees rijht and left and caused most 

 of the leaves to drop or shrivel up, followed by the fall 

 of the immature fruit. A in spite of all his trouble and 

 expense sees his crop ruined, or if he overcomes his pre- 

 judice against the use of chemicals, saves only a part of 

 the crop and that more or less deteriorated. Surely there 

 is something lacking in this method of procedure ! 



What is wanted is an automatic antipest destroying 

 agent which will do its work quickly, thoroughly and 

 without the aid of such men as farmer B and in spite of 

 such men as farmer C. Such an agent many think we 

 have found in pathogenic, contagious disease producing 

 fungi or bacteria. It is well known to the farmers of the 

 west that in some seasons the swarming multitudes of 

 clinch bugs after devouring the crops disappear sudden- 

 ly and as if by providential interposition. This disap- 

 pearance usually follows a period of wet weather and does 

 not as a rule occur until the pests have done irreparable 

 damage and increased until their loathsome presence is 



