The American Garden. 



Vol. XI. 



OCTOBER, i8go. 



No. .10. 



NEW FIELDS. 



THE PAST AND THE FUTURE IN THE WORLD OF FUNGI. 



HERE are compara- 

 tively few people who 

 are aware that we have 

 constantly around and 

 about us a host of al- 

 most invisible plants 

 that play as important 

 a part in the economy 

 of nature as the grasses 

 of the field, the trees 

 of the forest or any of 

 the numerous forms of 

 plant life seen in every-day walks. Botanists have 

 named, grouped and classified these plants just as 

 they have the more highly organized kinds. One 

 of these groups comprises the fungi, a heterogen- 

 eous class, which includes the toad-stools, mush- 

 rooms, rusts, mildews and blights. The man who 

 studies the fungi is now-a-days known as a mycolo- 

 gist. The science of economic mycology is yet in 

 its infancy, and I may be pardoned for saying a few 

 words in regard to the nature of the investigations 

 a mycologist is supposed to make. Strictly speak- 

 ing, an economic mycologist is one who investigates 

 the diseases of plants caused by fungi, but as a rule 

 the field of such an investigator is broader than 

 this, covering a great many plant diseases not due 

 to the foregoing cause. For this reason, I think 

 the term "vegetable pathologist" a more appropriate 

 one, as it does not limit the field. Of course there 

 is a limitation to this term, for if carried too far, 

 we shall encroach upon the ground of the entomolo- 

 gist and others who have to deal with the diseases 

 of plants caused by animal parasites. 



The fungi are for the most part so small that the 



highest powers of the microscope are necessary to 

 see and study them. Many live upon dead or 

 decaying matter, hence they may be regarded as of 

 direct benefit to man, breaking up complex chemical 

 compounds, and in many other ways aiding him 

 both directly and indirectly. Aside from the fungi 

 that live upon dead matter, there is an exceedingly 

 large class that attacks both living animals and 

 plants, and it is with these, especially those attack- 

 ing plants, that the economic mycologist has to deal. 

 Every plant that the farmer, gardener and fruit 

 grower cultivates is subject to the attacks of one or 

 more of these parasitic foes. The grape alone has 

 more than fifty of these pests, and it is a wonder 

 that we are able to grow this choice fruit at all ! 

 More than two hundred and fifty species live upon 

 the apple, and it is very probable that fully one- 

 third of these are positively injurious. 



To a limited degree, some of these forms are bene- 

 ficial to the farmer, because they attack and fre- 

 quently destroy noxious weeds. There is no doubt 

 that many of our most troublesome weeds are held 

 in check by this means, so that there is really a 

 promising field here for investigation. 



As we have seen that the fungi are true plants, 

 the question may arise as to how they grow and by 

 what means they are able to produce diseases. In 

 the first place, it should be remembered that the 

 fungi with which we are concerned have not the 

 power of getting their food from the air and soil, as 

 is the case with the higher form of plant life ; con- 

 sequently they must depend on other sources for it, 

 the main one being our cultivated crops. These 

 are attacked and their food appropriated, the results 

 being sickness and death. The parasitic fungi, then. 



