CHAPTER XXI. 



DISEASES OF FIG TREES AND INJURIOUS 

 INSECTS. 



We will not attempt to account for all the dis- 

 eases and injurious insects which infest fig trees 

 and fruit. Saccardo describes fifty-three fungi 

 which attack the leaves, fruit and roots upon the 

 European continent alone. Eisen adds a fifty- 

 fourth : " In France the fig plantations suffer great- 

 ly from the attacks of a root fungus of the genus 

 Rhizoctonia. The roots alone are affected, and 

 are destroyed in a very short time." There is no 

 record of these having appeared in the United 

 States, and as abstract scientific treatises fully de- 

 scribe them we will discuss others which are trouble- 

 some in this country. 



ROOT-ROT. 



(Ozonium Auricomum.) 



According to the reports of the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, and the experiment 

 station of Texas, the root-rot has attacked fig trees 

 in the southeastern part of the State; and several 

 nurserymen near the center of Texas describe a 

 disease among their stock which strongly indicates 

 its presence. It is a fungus growth interfering 

 with sap circulation in the roots, and, spreading 

 very rapidly, causes trees to quickly wither and 



