241 



MoRtpelier, in the anthers of the Grape. In Prof. 

 Planchon's case, he thinks the anthers with defec- 

 tive pollen are even larger and, apparently, better 

 developed than in the normal condition of the 

 grape blossom. The coincidence of two eminent 

 students, so far apart, — the one examining the Pear 

 the other the Grape, — and both making the same 

 discovery in the stamens is peculiar. The article to 

 which we ^efer, {Sur les flmrs anomales delci Vigne 

 cultive,) may be found in the Annales chs Sciences 

 Naturelles, for 1866, p. 230. 



But to the main jioint. The practical result to be 

 derived from these scientific investigations is, that 

 a tree may be apparently healthy; and yet be deft- 

 cient in vitality to perfect all its parts perfectly, — 

 and that, therefore, our modes of treatment should 

 be examined philosophically to their true results, 

 or we may deceive ourselves that our trees " look 

 well," when they are any thing else ; and lest we 

 find when too late for our pockets and our hopes, 

 that we gather only thistles from our grapes, and 

 thorns from figs, — reversing the. hopes of all good 

 husbandmen from the most ancient times until 

 to-day. 



. 



NATIONAL POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S 

 mSETING AT ST. LOUIS, 



Our readers must not forget that this commences 

 September 11th. "Cholera and short crops" ap- 

 pear, so far, to be no excuse this year. We hear 

 of many proposing to go from the east, and we 

 judge from present signs that no session in the past, 

 and probably no one in the future, will prove more 

 interesting than this promises. 



GHAFE VINE MILDEW. 



One of the most remarkable discoveries of modern 

 science is that plants will take on themselves dis- 

 tinct forms, even to reproducing the same forms 

 from seed, and yet under other circum- tances have 

 very difi"erent c'.iaracters, also reproducing them- 

 selves. Not only slight variation, but plants so 

 widely different as to be referred to different genera 

 have been proved to have originated from a com- 

 mon origin. In animals the same facts have been 

 observed. Professor Cope has recorded something 

 of this kind in the Journal of the Academy of Natu- 

 ral Sciences, and European naturalists have made 

 the same discoveries. 



In the Cryptogamic plants, so well studied by Mr. 

 Berkeley, this has been particularly elucidated. Wc 

 give below a chapter from Figieur's Vegetable 

 World which, besides giving some account of this 



wonderful polymorphism, will interest every one 

 interested in Grape vine mildew : — 



The Vine Fungus, which is the Oidium Tuc- 

 heri ot Berkeley, is supposed also to be a state of 

 Erysiphes — a genera of small fungi which the world 

 has a great interest in being acquainted with. The 

 elegant structure and varied form of some of these 

 fungi had fixed the attention of mycologists upon 

 them, long before the unforeseen result of M. 

 Tulasne's investigations became known. These 

 microscopic plants possess, according to M. Tulasne, 

 no less than three kinds of reproductive apparatus, 

 which make their appearance successively, and the 

 fungus destructive to the vine is only another species 

 of Erysiphes, which forms the two first evolutions 

 only of the reproductive organs. 



The organs of vegetation in the Erysiphes consist 

 of a mycelium formed of fine thread-like filaments, 

 furnished with spores the form and functions of 

 which remind us in many respects of the suckers of 

 the Dodder-plant , which leads to the inference that 

 in these fungi we see parasites which live upon the 

 green or living parts of vegetables particularly upon 

 the leaves. Certain filaments ot the mycelium bear 

 straight branches more or less numerous, which 

 swell at the extremities into ellipsoidal utricles, and 

 constitute small organs, often in the form of a chap- 

 let of beads, formed of reproductive cells, analo- 

 gous to the fugitive buds of cotyledonous plants. 

 To this first reproductive system M. Tulasne give 

 the name of Conidies (fig. 1). 



Fig. 1. 



Another class of organs consists of spherical or 

 ovoid vesicles, generally pedicellate, and filled with 



