306 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 17, 1872. 



Powell appears to be a tolerably good Strawberry; but the i 

 cream of the lot I had is Lucas, an excellent cropper, with j 

 fine fruit, of good flavour, and continuing a long time in j 

 bearing. Cockscomb is the next best in all respects, perhaps < 

 not such a profuse bearer, still the fruit is somewhat larger, 

 and has a delicious Queen flavour, whilst Lucas partakes more 

 of the Pine flavour. Of Prince of Wales, procured at the I 

 same time, I have not seen enough to say whether it is worth 

 keeping or not. It will be seen that out of six varieties I only [ 

 find two worth retaining — viz., Lucas and Cockscomb. 



I may add that I planted at the same time British Queen, j 

 which has greatly disappointed me. Like Dr. Hogg, it has ( 

 produced no fruit worthy of mention. It is evident that 

 British Queen and its kindred do not like this soil, although 

 it is cold and retentive. Possibly it is partly owing to our 

 having so much rain as well, for being in the neighbour- 

 hood of the hills that the watery clouds of the Atlantic Ocean 

 first encounter, we get more than our share of rain. I can 

 again speak in the highest terms of Black Bess ; although a 

 great number of its early blossoms were killed, and others 

 partially so produced deformed fruit, I had a very fair crop, 

 some berries very fine towards the end of the season, which 

 enabled me easily to carry off first and second prizes in an open 

 class. This kind produces as fine fruit at the last as at the first, 

 which few varieties do. It is what is termed a second early, 

 but we gather from it almost the latest. 



Before closing this note I wish again to notice that many of 

 the older sorts are not superseded ; for instance, the first-prize 

 Strawberry at the Royal Horticultural Show at Birmingham 

 was Kitley's Goliath. It was certainly a fine dish, but in my 

 opinion this Strawberry is poor eating, still it has a good ap- 

 pearance, and is a good cropper. The second prize, I think, 

 was carried off by Sir Charles Napier. Again, this is indiffer- 

 ent in flavour — too acid. The third, after these two old 

 varieties, was Dr. Hogg. Where were all the rest of the young 

 recruits ? — J. T., Maesgwynne , Whitland, S. Vales. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



The stormy weather, and warm humid air of the present 

 season, have been peculiarly favourable to all fungoid growths ; 

 therefore, as might have been expected, the Potato disease has 

 been more than ever prevalent and destructive. Accounts reach 

 us on all sides of the serious failure, or even total destruction, of 

 the Potato crops from the ravages of this insidious pest. How 

 and when it was first observed, what it is, and how to extirpate it, 

 are the three very serious questions which have occupied the 

 attention of scientific men for nearly thirty years. The two 

 first questions can now be pretty satisfactorily answered ; but 

 as for the third, it is an enigma which has at present baffled 

 every attempt at solution. 



A brief summary of what is known of the Potato disease, 

 with a new series of illustrations drawn to a uniform scale, 

 cannot fail to be of interest to all readers of " Science-Gossip ; " 

 and in writing this summary, and engraving these illustrations, 

 I am bound at once to disclaim all originality, and to say that 

 for nearly all the facts known respecting the Potato disease we 

 are in the main indebted to the careful and accurate ob- 

 servations of the Rev. M. J. Berkeley. These observations, 

 with those of Dr. Montague, Dr. Payen, De Bary, and others, 

 are spread over the literature of the last quarter of a century, 

 and as their perfect accuracy has now been confirmed by micro- 

 scopists in every direction, little more can be done than to pre- 

 sent these observations in their proper sequence and entirety. 

 Therefore, it must be understool that I am briefly recording 

 what I have seen of the Potato disease, after being told what 

 to look for, and how to see and understand it, by Berkeley and 

 other of our foremost scientific writers. 



The autumn of 1845 will be ever memorable as marking 

 the great outburst of the Potato muvrain over the whole of 

 Western Europe and the northern parts of the United States of 

 America ; the disease had, however, been very bad the previous 

 year in America, and was even observed in Europe, and re- 

 ported upon in that year by Desmazieres, who read a paper 

 upon it at Lille. Even in 1841 Dr. Morren detected it in 

 Belgium, and then and there published a notice of the fungus, 

 and some suggestions for contending against it, such as im- 

 mediately removing the diseased haulm, &e. But even so far 

 back as 1830 a disease of Potatoes was observed in Germany, 

 and called the " dry-rot ; " and it is very probable that the 

 first detection of the Potato disease dates back for nearly a 

 century. One year before its virulence reached its height in 



this country — viz., 1844, it occurred in its worst form in 

 Canada, and a letter addressed to Dr. Bellingham in that year, 

 and published in Saunders's N-eics Letter, gives a graphic ac- 

 count of its ravages. The letter says : — " During the months 

 of July and August we had repeated and heavy showers, with 

 oppressive heat, and an atmosphere strongly charged with 

 electricity. Towards the close of the month of August I ob- 

 served the leaves to be marked with black spots, as if ink had 

 been sprinkled over them. They began to wither, emitting a 

 peculiar offensive odour; and before a fortnight, the field, 

 which had been singularly luxuriant, and almost rank, became 

 arid and dried-up, as if by a severe frost. I had the Potatoes 

 dug-out during the month of September, when about two- 

 thirds were either positively rotten, partially decayed, and 

 swarming with worms, or spotted with brownish-coloured 

 patches, resembling flesh that had been frost-bitten. These 

 parts were soft to the touch, and upon the decayed Potatoes I 

 observed a whitish substance like mould." From careful con- 

 sideration of the earliest recorded cases of this disease, there 

 can be little doubt of its American origin, or, indeed, from its 

 dating back from a very early period. A superficial thinker 

 might be inclined to fall back upon the theory of " spontaneous 

 generation," and so account for the origin of the Potato 

 fungus about 1840 ; but although Peronospora infestans be- 

 longs to a genus numbering some forty species, all more or 

 less alike, and all parasitic upon living plants, yet the specific 



Kg. 1.— Peronospora infestans. Five days' growth from a spore, enlarged 

 four hundred diameters. 



characters of P. infestans appear so distinct (such as in the 

 peculiar swellings on the thread-like stems, &c), that no 

 observer of natural objects accustomed to distinguish one 

 thing from another, could for a moment think of considering 

 P. infestans as a mere form of some immediate ally. Its 

 real origin, like the origin of all plants, animals, diseases, etc., 

 probably dates into the far past, and is likely to be ever in- 

 volved 'in obscurity. Nothing is so diflicult (or even im- 



