214 
November, 1889. 
The Purple-leaved Plum. 
Prunus Pissardi is a recent introduction 
that should not be overlooked. It should 
not be th ught of, however, as a fruit tree, 
but as an ornamental tree for ihe lawn, 
where its fine purple foliage makes it a con- 
spicuous object. Most of those that we 
have seen have been treated as shrubs and 
planted much too neear the walk. This is a 
mistake. It is a tree, and should be planted 
as such. If any body cares to take the trou- 
ble. the fruit may be pickled or made into a 
tolerable jelly. — P. B. Mead. 
Tlie Embellishment of Home-Grounds. 
Flowers and showy foliage being pro- 
fessedly used for ornament should of course 
occupy the choicest site of the home grounds. 
The work being necessarily formal and 
artificial, there will be no incongruity in the 
close proximity of rigid lines: and the 
dwelling house may be as near as will best 
suit the general convenience in the use and 
enjoyment of the garden. The nature and 
extent of the collection will of course vary 
with the taste and means of the owner. The 
finer the design and the greater the variety 
of plants the better, so long as there is am- 
ple room for all in fitting proportion to the 
intrinsic merits of each kind, and to the 
general plan of the whole garden. It is 
well not to make any ambitious or preten- 
tious display unless it can be easily and wil- 
lingly kept in perfect order at all times. 
The immediate setting or surrounding of 
the garden should be in keeping with the 
central design. It is poor taste to make a 
gaudy show of fine flowers or bright foliage 
if adjacent grounds are weedy and seedy. It 
is equally bad taste to intrude such plants 
in formal masses into out-lying portions of 
the grounds mainly devoted to other uses. 
Even on the ordinary lawn the quiet repose 
of the green sward may be disturbed 
by some garish mass of high colors. The 
discord is equally great when formal beds 
of like character are scattered along the 
lawn border amid irregular groups of shrub- 
bery. This incongruity laststhe year round, 
for after the tender exotics die or are re- 
moved the bald plots look equally foreign 
to turf and coppice. A ]pwn is one thing, 
a flower garden another Grass has recent- 
ly supplanted gravel in the garden, thanks 
to the lawn mower. But only in city lots 
can the plants be properly in such relative 
proportions to the turf as to convey the idea 
of both garden and lawn. — Wm. McMillan 
before the Society of American Florists. 
Plant deciduous trees and shrubs now; 
they will start early in spring and get ahead 
of warm weather. 
Conducted by Prof. F. Lamson Scribner, 
Botanist, Experiment Station, Knoxville, Tens. 
Grai»e-leaf Blight. 
( Cladosporium viticolum.) 
A fungus quite unlike either the Downy 
or Powdery Mildews or the fungus of Black- 
rot attacks the foliage of the vine caus- 
ing a disease which we have named Grape- 
leat Blight. It is to be found on both wild 
and cultivated vines throughout the regions 
east of the Mississippi and extends south- 
westward into Texas. It is also found in 
Europe. W e Lave seen it the past season 
on wild vines in Canada and we have never 
been in a vineyard, within the range speci- 
fied, where we have not Seen more or less 
of it. Usually appearing quite early in the 
season, it first attacks the lo 'ermost leaves, 
and increases in abundance as the season 
advances. In the Eastern and northern 
Middle States its ravages are usually of 
small extent and the injury occasioned un- 
important. but in the South, in North Caro- 
lina and especially in Tennessee, its effects 
are sometimes serious. In a vineyard of 
Concords, Delawares, Catawbas and Red 
Wyoinings, which we had under inspection 
the past summer we noticed the Leaf-blight 
on all the varieties, but most on the Cataw- 
bas and least on the Delawares. Early in 
July it had spread over some of the Cataw- 
ba vines even to the highest and most expos- 
ed leaves, the blight spots being numerous 
and unusually large. A small vineyard of 
Concords in this vicinity (Knoxville), which 
we visited about September 10, presented a 
remarkable instance of the severity of this 
disease. From our first glance at the vine- 
yard we thought that the foliage had been 
injured or rather destroyed, for practically 
it was destroyed, by the Downy Mildew, 
and we were much surprised upon closer 
inspection, even after careful search, not to 
find any of the mildew in it; but the blight 
fungus was everywhere, much of the fol- 
iage had already fallen through the action 
of the parasite and there was not a leaf re- 
maining on the vines that did not show the 
marks of the disease. These were spotted 
and blotched in all degrees, some but slight- 
ly, others covered with numerous and rath- 
er small spots, while others still, and these 
were in the large majority, presented a 
blotched and blackened appearance as if 
burned with a hot iron. Such was the con- 
dition of the foliage that the possibility of 
the blight fungus to become, under some 
circumstances, a serious pest, at least in 
this latitude, could not be questioned. The 
fruit in the vineyard had been harvested at 
the time of our visit so it is very likely that 
J the crop was little if at all affected by the 
Blight. The vines, however, could not pass 
uninjured this early destruction of the fol- 
iage, a fact which doubtless will be made 
evident next year by an enfeebled growth 
and diminished crop. 
The appearance of the disease as seen on 
vine-leaves about Washington, in New Jer- 
sey, etc., is fairly well illustrated by the ) 
colored figure on plate VI in Botanical Bul- 
letin No. 2 of the U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture, on the Fungus Diseases of the Grape 
Vine. The general yellowing of the leaf 
outside of brown spots or parts directly at- 
tacked, happens most frequently in the low- 
er leaves or those in partial shade. 
The spots of the Leaf Blight are readily 
distinguished from those caused by Black- 
rot (Leaf-spot disease) by their more irregu- 
lar outline, much darker color, and absence 
of the numerous, usually concentrically ar- 
ranged, black points or pustules which char- 
acterize the latter . In the violent form in 
which the disease occurs here, the spots are 
much larger, still more irregular in outline 
and very dark brown in color, appearing al- 
most black. The leaf tissue within the spots 
is killed andbecomes dry and brittle. Such 
large and irregular spots may be mistaken ■*- 
for the effects of mildew but the entire ab- 
sence of the white, frosty or downy external 
growth of this parasite serves to distinguish 
it. Besides, we can usually detect the 
Blight fungus with the naked eye by fold- 
ing a diseased leaf over the finger and look- 
ing across one of the spots against the light 
or a white surface. In this way we see the 
spore-bearing filaments, or rather bundles 
of filaments, standing upright, as fine, hair- 
like projections scattered more or less thick- 
ly over the surface. One of these bundles, 
very highly magnified, for they are rarely 
1-25 of an inch high, is shown in figure 1615, 
together with S jmeof the 
detached spores, equally 
magnified. The body of 
the fungus, consisting of 
slender, dark colored, 
tubular filaments with 
many cross walls or sept. Al- 
lies buried within the tis- 
sue of the leaf in the 
"A discolored spots. 
- v == ^ The general shape of 
fig. 1615. the dark, olive-brown 
spores is illustrated in the figure. These 
are produced in great abundance during 
damp weather and as they germinate readi- 
ly in condensed moisture the disease often 
spreads with great rapidity . The mycelium 
lives in the fallen leaves through the winter 
and is ready to produce a new crop of spores 
in the first warm days of spring. 
No attention has been paid to the treat- 
ment of this disease for it attacks only the 
foliage and has generally been regarded 
with indifference. We have seen, however, 
that in exceptional cases at least, it may do 
serious injury to the vines and a kr.o\' ledge 
of its appearance and habits becomes h ^ 
portant Certainly all the fallen leaves 
harboring the fungus, ought to be destroy- 
ed as one means of mitigating the ravages 
of this parasite. What » ffect the cupric so 
lutions employed in treating mildew and rot 
may have upon it is y T et to be determined. 
