212 ' THE FLORIST AND 



until its culms or stems become dry, when these are pushed aside for fresher 

 grass. 2. It possesses an aromatic principle capable of communicating a 

 delightful flavor to the milky products of the cow, as well as to the meat of 

 sheep and other stock grazed upon it. It furnishes a fine aftermath and 

 rich autumnal pasturage in moist seasons. These, I think, are sufficient 

 reasons for regarding the sweet-scented vernal grass, making, as it does, an 

 important portion of all the best pasture lands of Europe, worthy the atten- 

 tion of the American farmer. As the seed sells readily here for seventy-five 

 cents to one dollar per pound, a bushel weighing six pounds, being sufficient 

 to sow two or three acres, some might think this alone a sufficient induce- 

 ment to enter into its culture. Hoping that those who may read this, and 

 have the opportunity, will refer to my former communications relative to 

 this grass, I remain, 



Respectfully, 



G. Emerson, Philadelphia. 



[Farm Journal, 



VINE MILDEW. 



The mildew known by the name of O'idium Tuckeri, which proves so de- 

 structive to Grapes, consists of a net work (spawn, thallus, mycelium) of 

 white and very fine filaments, which cover the green and healthy parts of 

 the Vine, and occasion the formation of brown or black blotches. From 

 these filaments, which are all on the surface of the epidermis of the vegeta- 

 ble nourishing them, arises a forest of small, simple, erect, cellular stems, 

 of which the last articulation quickly becomes a large oval cell, capable of 

 propagating the O'idium like a seed. 



Independent of these reproductive bodies, the O'idium Tuckeri possesses 

 brown fruits, usually pedicellate, the coatings of which are membranes com- 

 posed of cells, and containing an immense number of very small seeds, 

 which likewise readily germinate. These fruits are usually larger than the 

 terminal seeds just spoken of; but their size does not often exceed that of 

 the latter ; resembling them in form, they are frequently borne on the same 

 footstalk, so that one might imagine they resulted from the transformation 

 of the primitive seeds. M. Cesati was the first that I know of who recog- 

 nized the existence of these fruits, but he did not suspect that they be- 

 longed to the O'idium, and he took them for the reproductive organs of a 

 distinct sort of mildew, which he called Ampelomyces quisqualis. M. Amici 



