HORTICULTURAL JOURISrAL. 35 
adjoining clusters and involving them in one common and agglutinated mass 
of corruption. The surface is studded with a mould or parasitic fungus. 
The surface of the mass soon desiccates and assumes a black color. For 
months, and even years, it will adhere tenaciously to the limb of the tree. 
This malignant and cankery action will, likewise, extend to the adjoining 
bark, wood and fruit spurs ; and often either entirely destroys their vitality 
or induces a sickly condition ; and little or no fruit will again set under 
two or three years. 
The period of time it first appears, is at the moment the fruits have at- 
tained their full size and are about completing their ripening ; while the 
attacks of the curculio occur much earlier, and have nearly subsided at the 
time the other becomes apparent. 
A few localities, even in this section of the country, seem as yet to have 
escaped its ravages. It has been said, not to show itself in limestone 
formations ; but, I think, facts do not sustain the assertion. Soil and 
cultivation have not influenced it in any manner in my grounds. Acid 
and austere varieties such as the Damsons are less subject to its attacks. 
A knowledge of the pathology of a disease, whether in the animal or 
vegetable kingdom, is frequently an advancement at least one half of the 
way towards the discovery of a successful mode of treatment. It is, there- 
fore, desirable to ascertain what is the intimate nature of this abnormal 
action in the Plum. 
My object in offering this article to the public, is to solicit information on 
that point. At the same time, I would take the liberty to suggest my own 
theory in regard to it, which, most likely, is visionary and untenable. It is 
this : The elements of saccharine matter, requisite to complete the maturity 
of the fruit, fail at that juncture to form their proper combinations, and 
are rapidly converted into food by a parasitic Fungus, the Torula saccharina 
or some kindred species. 
An analogy may, perhaps, be found in two diseases of the human system, 
in which misdirected nuti'ition, in one instance, furnishes the material for 
tuberculous deposits, and in another, for sugar in a morbid renal secretion. 
Extensive applications of lime, sulphur and water, or a strong solution of 
Gas-lime to the limbs, fruits and foliage of the Plum tree, while developing 
its fruits, are said in some of our Horticultural Journals, to preserve the 
crop for a successful maturing ; and have been recommended as an antidote 
to the curculio. 
It has been a query with me whether these agents act by thwarting the 
progress of that insect, or counteracting the development of the Torula. 
