IX PESTS 185 



certain sorts may be sometimes seen standing leaf- 

 less except for just a tuft of the youngest foliage 

 at the top. All the other leaves, covered with the 

 black spots, have withered and fallen, as if it was 

 winter. 



The Victor Verdier race are the most liable to 

 suffer in this way, and in fact are generally badly off for 

 leaves by the end of August, but a great many other 

 H.P.s are often victims, especially the very dark 

 ones, and all that are budded on manetti. Teas are 

 entirely exempt from it, anfi it is rare under glass. 



Partly from the fact that the first and principal 

 bloom is not affected by it, and that it does not seem 

 to do much harm to the next year's growth, and 

 partly because there appears to be no remedy short 

 of cutting off the attacked shoots and burning them, 

 this pest is very little heeded by nurserymen or even 

 by amateurs, and I confess I take no notice of it 

 and have never found it to do my summer blooms any 

 practical injury. 



It is plain, however, that the loss of the leaves, 

 in what is but little past the middle of summer, 

 must be a considerable check to the plants, and as 

 the growth of the fungus is within the membranes 

 of the Eose plant there seems to be actually no 

 remedy short of cutting off the orange-spotted leaves 

 and shoots in early summer and burning them ; but 

 I think gentle rubbing with finger and thumb with 

 a pinch of sulphur is likely to do good in the early 

 stages. 



On light soils, especially those rich in humus or 

 vegetable matter, like an old garden, the attacks 

 are less frequent. They are worst in a dry hot 

 August on heavy lands which have not had much 



