74 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 26, 1877. 



a fungus origin, but the Rev. M. J. Berkeley long ago described 

 the disease, and showed it to be caused by a parasite of another 

 nature. The description he illustrated with the utmost aocu- 

 racy. It would seem that the pest which causes the mischief 

 is not always readily seen, or maybe it escapes into the sur- 

 rounding soil, or, after working the mischief, perishes ; but 

 that it is sometimes difficult or even impossible to detect Mr. 

 Berkeley himself confesses. On thi3 acoount Mr. Berkeley's 

 observation has unfortunately been questioned, but he has 

 quite recently been able to satisfactorily confirm it9 positive 

 accuracy in Gardeners' Chronicle, Sept. 5th, 1874. For our 



part we have frequently seen the interior of the nodules just 

 in the condition described by Mr. Berkeley, with the parasites 

 in all stages of growth, from the egg condition upwards. 



Our illustration, prepared by Mr. W. G. Smith, represents 

 on the left the diseased roots natural Bize, and on the right 

 a thin slice through one of the nodules of the roots. The 

 latter is an exact reflection from a camera lucida attached to 

 the microscope, and shows the cellular tissue, a; pitted and 

 spiral vessels, e ; the worms coiled up in the eggs, c; worms 

 emerged, i); and empty eggs, e, from which the worms have 

 escaped. 



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Fig. 20. — The disease of cucumber roots, enlarged 160 diameters. 



The disease is therefore caused by the presenoe of minute 

 worm-like infusoria called vibrios, creatures common in de- 

 composing infusions, &c. We have carefully examined your 

 roots with the microscope, and the vibrios as originally de- 

 scribed by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley are present in abundance 

 from the egg state upwards. It is much easier to examine and 

 describe a disease than effect its cure. The recommendation 

 generally is to utterly destroy all the diseased roots and the 

 surrounding soil. Whether these nodosities are present or not 

 Mr. Smith finds the nematoid worms in all parts of Cucumber 

 plants when suffering from disease. He has even found them 

 in the cotyledons, and believes them to be the same species 

 common in the juices of dung, in impure (and apparently pure) 

 brooks, in mud by stream sides, and in rain. They are very 

 small. They are supplied to the Cucumber plant in the manure, 

 the manurial waters, or even water from brooks. They speedily 

 eat into the root fibres, and there lay their eggs. The eggs 

 are soon hatched, and the now family eats away further up 

 and more eggs are laid, and this goes on till the whole plant 

 is half rotten. If when the seeds are planted the earth is 



saturated with a solution of Mr. Smith's " salus," 7 lbs. to fifty 

 gallons of water (or it may be stronger), he says every worm, 

 and egg, and infusorial animal will be destroyed, and the Cu- 

 cumbers will be perfectly healthy because the parasites are 

 gone. Mr. Fish and many other growers have now tried this, 

 and he has not heard of one failnre ; on the contrary, several 

 men who were totally unable to grow Cucumbers at all owing 

 to disease now have good orops. This applies to Melons 

 equally with Cucumbers. 



HALL PLACE. 

 Refinement and culture are the sure indications of an ad- 

 vanced stage of civilisation. A taste for the beautiful and the 

 good is implanted in our nature from earliest infancy, growing 

 with our growth if it be fostered and nourished, but becoming 

 dwindled and almost lost if it is not so cared for. Among the 

 many influences which combine in our own happy country to 

 elevate us it must be granted that horticulture plays no mean 

 part, softening, refining, and imparting a tone such as nothing 



