— 2— 



careful gardener to keep his fruit plantation free from them. 



With suitable location, good soil and the right food, 

 plants are much better able to withstand disease than 

 those which are starved and poorly placed. But when 

 there comes an attack of some fungous disease even the 

 best of trees are likely to suffer somewhat. I wonder if 

 you are sure of the meaning of the term '^fungus". A 

 fungus is a plant having neither leaves nor flowers 

 and feeding upon some other organic substance either 

 living or dead. Many people a great deal older and wiser 

 than you in horticultural affairs know very little about 

 the various fungi attacking their plants. You will notice 

 that in speaking of more than one such plant we say 

 ^^fungi". I wish you would find out for yourselves the 

 difference in these three words: fungus, fungous and 

 fungi. A fungus is made up of a mass of little cells and 

 thread-like tissues. These threads as they develop and 

 reach out to absorb nourishment from the substance upon 

 which they feed, are called mycelia. A mycelium does 

 the same kind of work as the root of a flowering plant. 

 These thread-like tissues drink up the sap and in time if 

 sufficiently numerous will kill the plant upon which they 

 live. 



Let us suppose that in the fruit garden are strawberry 

 plants, currant, raspberry and gooseberry bushes, grape 

 vines, cherry, plum, apple, peach and pear trees. You see 

 we are confining this part of the lesson to some of the dis- 

 eases of fruit plants only. It would be impossible to de- 

 scribe in so short a lesson all of the diseases and insect 

 pests of even one of the plants mentioned; but this may 

 help you to recognize some of their more common enemies. 



You would think the specialists in plant diseases had 

 selected some very unpronounceable names should we use 



