230 FUNGI. 
Roses have to contend against the two forms of Phragmidium 
mucrenatum as well as Asleroma Rose. Still more disastrous 
is a species of Lrystphei, which at first appears like a dense 
white mould. This is named Spherotheca pannosa. Nor is this 
all, for Peronospora sparsa, when it attacks roses in conservatorics, 
is merciless in its exactions.* Sometimes violets will be distorted 
and spoiled by Urocystis Viole. The garden anemone is freely 
attacked by Afcidium quadrifidum. Orchids are liable to spot 
from fungi on the leaves, and recently the whole of the choicest 
hollyhocks have been threatened with destruction by a merciless 
foe in Puccinia malvacearum. This fungus was first made known 
to the world as an inhabitant of South America many years ago. 
It seems next to have come into notoriety in the Australian 
colonies. Then two or three years ago we hear of it for the 
first time on the continent of Europe, and last year for the first 
time in any threatening form in our own islands. During the 
present year its ravages are spreading, until all admirers of 
hollyhocks begin to feel alarm lest it should entirely exterminate 
the hollyhock from cultivation. It is common on wild mallows, 
and cotton cultivators must be on the alert, for there is a 
probability that other malvaceous plants may suffer. 
A writer in the “ Gardener’s Chronicle” has proposed a remedy 
for the hollyhock disease, which he hopes will prove effectual. 
He says, “This terrible disease has now, for twelve months, 
threatened the complete annihilation of the glorious family of 
hollyhock, and to baffle all the antidotes that the ingenuity of 
man could suggest, so rapidly does it spread and accomplish its 
* deadly work. Of this 1 have had very sad evidence, as last 
year at this time I had charge of, if not the largest, one of the 
largest and finest collections of hollyhocks anywhere in cultiva- 
tion, which had been under my special care for eleven years, 
and up to within a month of my resigning that position I had 
observed nothing uncommon amongst them; but before taking 
my final leave of them I had to witness the melancholy spectacle 
of bed after bed being smitten down, and amongst them many 
splendid seedlings, which had cost me years of patience and 
* Berkely, in ‘‘ Gardener's Chronicle,” 1862, p. 308, 
