THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



69 



Colors— Orange, the ring blackish. 



APPLE-LEAF " CLUSTER-CUPS.' v 



There is a peculiar kind of orange-colored 

 fungu.s, which we have noticed for a long time 

 to be exceedingly abundant in particular sea- 

 .sons on the leaves of 

 the wild crab (Pyriis 

 coronariu). On the 

 upper surface of the 

 leaf it appears early 

 in the season as a 

 largeorangc-colored 

 blotch ; and some- 

 what later in the 

 year, if the under 

 surface of the leaf is 

 examined, it pre- 

 sents the appear- 

 ance of Figure 43.* 

 If we apply a moder- 

 ately powerful lens 

 to the little circle of 

 dots exhibited in 

 this drawing, we 

 shall see that each 

 dot, when snfRciciit- 

 ly magnified, is a little miracle of vegetable struc- 

 ture, and looks very much like one of (hose Sea 

 Anemones (ylci«/(t«),with which the popular eye 

 has now become sufficiently familiarized through 

 such elegant little works as the Seaside Studies.^ 

 In Figure 44 wc give a view of one of tliese 

 magnified dots, several scores of which 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 

 witli long transparent hairs, 

 which are very sensitive to ''/-- 

 moisture and curl up when 

 wetted so as to close the ap- 

 erture. Inside the cylinder, 

 under a good microscope, we 

 may discover a mass of 

 grains, which are technically termed " spores," 

 and though they are much simpler in their 

 structure than the true seeds of Flowering 

 Plants, 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 the particular species that we now have 



•We reproiliice this, as well as the following figure, IVoni 

 ail excellent Article on this subject iu the American Agricul- 

 turitt lor December, 1868, to which we are also indebted tor 

 several of the details given herewith. 



tSee Seaside Studies in Natural Histori/, by Mrs. E. C. 

 Agassiz and A. Agassiz, page S, llgiires i, 4 and .'>. 



minute brownish 



to deal with may be called the "Apple-leaf 

 Cluster-cup" (QScidium pyratum, Schweinifz). 



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 1869 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 otr prematurely in a more or less de- 

 fective condition. 



From the recorded history of Noxious Fun- 

 guses and Noxious 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, anil 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 tlian 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 diflerent 

 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 ami 

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

 perform the operation before the little cups, 

 from which these "Cluster-cups" take their 



