146 FERN GROWING 



author's Fernery, and into that of the Clifton Zoological 

 Gardens. It does not show itself out of doors until the middle 

 of summer, when dark patches appear on the fronds, which 

 are at once much disfigured. If all the fronds are severely 

 attacked, the plant becomes so weak that it is unable to recover. 

 The author has it in his greenhouses, where it attacks even 

 the small seedlings, and in a warm greenhouse it grows and 

 spreads through the winter. The only way to stamp it out 

 is by cutting off all the diseased fronds as they appear, and 

 at once burning them. Its ravages are chiefly confined to 

 the Scolopendrium ; but it will attack other Ferns, especially 

 the Lady Fern and Nephrodium spinulosum ; and indeed other 

 plants, as in the spring of 1892 it was found on the leaves of 

 the dahlia and tomato that were growing in the same house 

 with the author's seedling Ferns.* An orange-coloured fungus t 

 attacks the Cystopteris, and occasionally mildew may be seen. 

 We read in the Gardeners Chronicle, Dec. 24, 1892 : — 

 " A new pest attacked Aspidium angulare (but no other Fern) 

 on the lOth of June 1894, and for a few days did great damage. 

 The rachis at different heights was scraped to the centre, 

 and this caused the frond to break at the injury ; the costa 

 of the pinnae were also similarly attacked. What produced 

 this damage was not discovered. It was noticed both at 

 Shirenewton Hall and at the Clifton Zoological Gardens. 



" Specimens of the fungus greatly resembling that found on 

 the potato, which were sent to Dr. Maxwell Masters, were re- 

 ported on by Mr. Cooke, who considered ' it was apparently 

 Milesia polupodii, found first in Scotland, but not before 

 known in England. The filaments are like those of a moss, 

 long drawn out, resembling those of Fontinalis aniepyretica.' " — 

 Jkf. C. Cooke, Herbarium, Royal Gardens, Kew. 



* The Milesia was all but absent in 1893, no doubt owing to the drought, but 

 it played fearful ravages with the Hart's-tongue Fern in 1894. 

 + Fuligo varians. 



