j 



\ PHILADELPHIA, APRIL, 1867. 



1X1= All Coniinunicatious for the Editor should be addressed, 

 "Thomas Mekhan, Germaatown, Pliiladelphia,"and Business Let. 

 ters directed to " W. G. P. Brincklok, Box Philadelphia." 



^1 



For Terms of Subscription see second page of cover. 



For Terms of Advertising see page 33. 



Volumes 1, $1 ; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 unbound, $2 each. 



A Z^TEW ENEMY TO THE APPLE GROWER. 



In our February No., page 51, a Cleveland cor- 

 respondent related some peculiar experiences with 

 his apple trees, for which we could not account. — 

 The ends of the branches, during summer, became 

 as if they were arrested and deformed growths of 

 fruits. 



We have since examined these protuberances, and 

 find them of fungoid origin, similar to the Black 

 Knot, but of a very different nature. At present, 

 we are incHned to think this an entirely new species 

 of cryptoganiic fungi, — whether a new creation or a 

 new introduction, we are not now in a position to 

 suggest; but certainly one which has not been 

 known to exist on Apple trees in the United States 

 before ; and it will be well if the parasite can be de- 

 stroyed totally on its firsi appearance, before it has 

 had time to spread. 



We regard it as peculiarly unfortunate for Amer- 

 ican horticulture that its science has not kept pace 

 with its numerous practitioners ; and this is clearly 

 evident in the case of the Plum Knot. Because a 

 curculio mark was found on the knot it was assumed 

 that insects were the cause ; and it has taken a per- 

 sistent effort of six or seven years, through the Gar- 

 dener s Monthly, mainly, before the community has 

 been brought to understand that a fungus and not 

 an insect has caused the trouble. 



It would have been just as easy to have discovered 

 this at the first appearance of the knot as now, if a 

 scientific mind had been called to the investigation; 

 and its general diffusion, perhaps, had been stopped. 

 Now, with spores everywhere, it is an almost hope- 

 less task. 



With this Apple fungus the case may be differ- 

 ent. It is only necessary to understand that these 

 parasitic fungi have the same course to run as other 

 plants. The spores, or seeds, develope, then grow, 

 then mature spores for another crop. If the plant 

 is destroyed before it can mature seed, the whole 

 crop is destroyed. So that to prevent the spread 

 of either this plum or apple knot, all that is neces- 



sary is to cut off and burn before it matures. Of 

 course this will not prevent spores coming from 

 other places ; — but this any one will understand. 



PROGRESS OF HORTICULTURAL KNOW- 

 LEDGE IN ENGLAND. 



There is no country in the world where Horticul- 

 ture is more popular, or carried on on a grander 

 scale than in England, yet horticultural knowledge 

 makes but very slow progress there. This is pro- 

 bably owing to a sort of feeling that no nation can 

 possibly learn anything but themselves. It would 

 make no difference to us how much they were sat- 

 isfied with what they knew, if it were not that our 

 papers have been so much used to look up to Eu- 

 ropean knowledge as the sum of all that is known, 

 that it is generally received as sufficient evidence of 

 value that such and such an idea is " from an Eng- 

 lish journal ;" and, in consequence, a good portion 

 of our time is devoted to correcting erroneous im- 

 pressions, which are propagated amongst our own 

 people to their own injury. 



The amount of progressive thought amongst the 

 German and French horticulturists is worthy of 

 much praise : yet we look in vain through English 

 papers for any allusion to new German ideas, and 

 only now and then see a reference to something 

 French. The consequence is, they are continually 

 led into amusing errors, and labor to find out expla- 

 nations of phenomenon which all the rest of the 

 world has known long before. 



They have just got through a fit of "Madras Rad- 

 ish," and the Heath-like form of Ellwanger & Bar- 

 ry's Arborvitae now astonishes them. They must, 

 of course, give it a new name : Americans have no 

 right to name any thing I " Tom Thumb " is too 

 common a name for an Arborvitae, though " Good 

 Gracious " does very well for a Pansy, when given 

 to it by an Englishman. So they w^ll have nothing 

 but Thuja occidentalis ericoides for this plant. 



The fun of the thing is, that in Germany, they 

 have had a form of the same thing, as nearly ''alike 

 as two peas," and with the same name. Thuja erico- 

 ides, for a dozen years oi more. A friend of ours saw 

 it under very extensive propagation in the Hamburg 

 Nurseries, and from the large quantity there raised 

 it must now be scattered far and wide over every 

 part of the Continent. 



This dogged obstinacy to know nothing but what 

 is English, is also amusingly shown in the case of our 

 Mammoth Tree, which they called Wellingtonia. 

 Our American Botanists, Gray, Torrey, and others, 

 showed them that "they were mistaken in its claims 

 to be a new genus, — that it was but a Sequoia, a 



