16 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The first thing noticed by the grower when his crop is 
attacked is that the leaves lose their bright appearance, assuming 
a dull and faded tint. The leaf branch then becomes limp and 
droops, the leaves also drooping, but apparently no further change 
takes place, that is to say, no leaf disease is to be noticed ; the 
leaf does not become spotted at first. The next point, as regards 
external appearance, is a complete stoppage of growth : the young 
leaves and branches bend over, just as they would do if frozen, 
and cease altogether to grow. When this stage is reached the 
leaves are found to have left off forming chlorophyll and to 
have yellow patches, not due to fungoid growth, but to the absorp- 
tion of the existing chlorophyll. From this time the plant 
gradually "goes off," having ceased to perform any of its func- 
tions. The fruit-spurs bearing green fruits are usually allowed 
to remain on the dying plant until the Tomatos are ripe, and then 
the whole plant is removed, and it is no uncommon thing to see 
a house allowed to die down with only one, two, or three fruit 
trusses to each x^lant. 
Now those fruits which outwardly appear good and ripe are in 
many cases put aside for seed, the remainder being sent away for 
consumption, all, to the eye of the grower, appearing unaffected by 
the sleeping disease, and no doubt the grower congratulates 
himself on the saving of at least a portion of his crop. Certainly 
the Tomatos are not unfit for sale, but it remains to be proved 
whether it is wise to keep them for seed. 
1 early noticed that in iilanting seedlings a certain proportion 
of the strongest taken from the seed-boxes (where a number 
always remained as too weakly) reached a moderate height, in 
many cases bearing only throe or four bunches of fruit, and then 
became attacked. I therefore commenced a series of observations, 
and noted first that the smallest seedlings died just in the same 
way as the larger plants ; and on cutting sections of the stems 
and studying them under the microscope 1 was not long in find- 
ing out that as soon as the leaf begins to droop, whatever the age 
of the plant, the plant ceases to be supplied witli the upward flow 
of sap, because already a serious and fatal condition of things has 
arisen in the stem. 
A series of microscopic sections made from diseased plants 
has proved that the following state of the root and stem occurs : 
Tlie roof first suffers the loss of its smaller fibres, which rot away ; 
