cell was disclosed in the leaves ; but whatever may bet 
968 On the Microscopic and General Characters of _[December, 
knowledge, has ever been recorded as occurring there. ° I have 
already sufficiently discussed this theory under the head Ditsem- 
nation of the Yellows, and think that nothing further can be said 
about it unless more facts are brought to light. Nevertheless, I 
wish to quote a passage—a statement concerning this matter 
which my observations strongly confirm: 1 The fungus found 
upon the roots of decayed peach trees is indigenous to all dead 
and decaying woods, and is the effect, and not the cause of such 
decay. Many thousands of trees which have been stricken by 
the disease, have been removed by ‘drawing out;’ the crowns, 
and roots of such trees invariably show a sound and healthy 
appearance.” 
Some have suggested that the disease might be zymotic in 
its nature. Mr. C. H. Peck, State,Botanist of N. Y., has examined 
diseased specimens with this idea before him, and his results I 
give in full:? “The juice of an affected peach was carefully 
examined, but a power of four hundred diameters failed to reveal 
any spores or ferment cells. Thin sections of the leaves were 
made, and the leaf cells examined. A marked difference was 
observed between the cells of leaves from healthy trees and those 
of leaves from diseased trees. In the former the cells were well 
filled with a uniform mass of green chlorophyl, in the latter the 
chlorophyl was badly disorganized, very much broken up, 
shrunken and discolored. Many of the cells appeared to be 
nearly empty, and one or more minute, globose, shining bodies 
were seen among the fragments of the chlorophyl. An import 
ant step seemed now to have been taken in the investigation, but 
farther examination convinced me that these shining bodies were 
only the altered nuclei of the chlorophyl. It is scarcely possible 
that they could be foreign organic bodies, for how could they 
enter the walls of the unruptured cells? It was found that 
_ leaves discolored by the attacks of insects had the chlorophy! of 
the faded cells in a similar shriveled and abnormal condition. 
Various autumnal leaves, colored by nature’s process, show similar 
_ shining nuclei in their cells, which also sometimes have thee 2 
_ endochrome ina collapsed condition. Nothing like a ferment 
: : of this peculiar condition of the chlorophy! in leaves from affecte?e = 
— *Michigan Pomological Report, 1878, p. 254. 
Guitioator, amd Country Gentleman, Oct. 30, 1879. 
he cause 
