SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 
clxxiii 
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 
The following matters have been dealt with during the summer 
recess : — 
Asparagus, Diseased.- — Specimens badly diseased were received from 
Mr. G. Croft Harris, Upton-on-Severn, and submitted to Dr. W. G. 
Smith, who reports as follows : — 
" The plant of Asparagus received is badly attacked by the Asparagus 
rust-fungus Puccinia asparagi, DC. The stems are studded with dark 
spots, oval in shape, and some as long as one-eighth of an inch. Ex- 
amination showed the characteristic two-celled ' teleutospores,' or 
winter-resting spores, with a thick dark brown coat ; the spots seen on 
the stem are compact patches of these spores. The fungus filaments 
live inside the tissues of the Asparagus plant. The life-history of this 
Puccinia agrees closely with that of Mint-rust, Puccinia meiithce. The 
young shoots of Asparagus in early summer bear tiny cups, from which 
a form of spore (iecidiospore) is given off ; later in the season brown spots 
on the plant give off a second form of spore (uredospore) ; in late sum- 
mer or autumn appears the third form in the shape of dark brown patches 
of teleutospores, as in the plant sent. In considering a remedy, it is 
important to bear in mind that these teleutospores rest through the 
winter, and next season infect young plants. Operations must therefore 
be directed towards gathering and burning all the old stems as soon as 
possible, and before the spores have time to be scattered about. At the 
same time all weeds or other matter likely to harbour the spores during 
winter may be gathered and burned. Quicklime may also profitably be 
dug into the upper soil in as large a quantity as may be considered safe 
for the crop ; and while the plants are dormant, spraying with diluted 
Bordeaux Mixture has been fairly successful as a check to the rust, but 
the delicate nature of Asparagus foliage makes this risky, and further 
experiments are required." 
Asters, Diseased. — Examples were sent by Mrs. E. Daw, of Nymett 
House, Nymett Rowland, Lapford, North Devon, observing that " the 
whole bed looked in splendid condition, but one after another nearly 
every plant went off, and in only a very few" hours seemed quite withered 
and dead. Another garden in this neighbourhood has suffered in the 
same way, and French Marigolds have also been similarly attacked." 
They appeared to be attacked by a worm called Enchytrceus parvulus 
(Fig. 182), which is thus described by the Rev. Hilderic Friend in the 
Gardeners' Chronicle of August 14, 1897 : " The worm is 3 to 5 mm. in 
length, or about one-eighth of an inch. It is therefore the smallest 
species known to science, since Tauber's E. minutus is insufficiently 
described and cannot be certainly identified. View^ed under a pocket 
lens, it is white or silvery, and when seen under the microscope the first 
six or seven segments are pellucid, while the remainder of the worm's 
intestinal organs are covered with dark cells. The character by which it 
