222 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 4, 1884. 
Wales (which flower, by-the-hy, -would he worth a better name than 
“ Bendigo ”). I ha-ye directed early attention to it, as perhaps there may 
be an opportunity for a growing plant in flower to be exhibited during the 
coming season at one or other of the chief Chrysanthemum exhibitions, 
or before the Floral Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society at 
Kensington, and so set the matter at rest.—C. Orchaed, Coonibe Warren, 
Kingston-on-Thames . 
FUNGI AND DISEASES OF PLANTS. 
(By T. J. Bureill, Illinois Industrial University.) 
There are very few of our flowering plants, whether native or introduced, 
growing wild or cultivated, which are not known to support one or more 
species of vegetable parasites. All of the “ rusts,” “ smuts,”'“ mildews,” and 
many affections of the leaves, stems, flowers, or fruit, known by other names, 
are found to be peculiarly associated with true growths of, for each case, 
special kinds of minute vegetation. Though only seen, except as a mass, by 
the aid of the compound microscope, these growths are the products of real 
species of plants, having all the characteristics of form, of life, and of 
reproduction possessed by the better known species of the higher members 
of the vegetable kingdom. Their minuteness does not prevent existence, 
nor real specific distinction. Small as these miscroscopical fungi are, they 
are just as subject to classification into orders, genera, and species, as are the 
trees in the forest. To him who has carefully studied these minute forms, 
a certain kind of “ rust ” on Wheat straw is as characteristically recognisable 
as the Wheat species itself is to an agriculturist. The botanist names and 
classifies the species which are only revealed to him by the microscope, in the 
same way and with the same basis of specific distinction among the kinds as 
he does those whose various forms make up the conspicuous verdure of the 
prairies and of the woodlands. And, what may seem astonishing to many 
is that the number of thus definitely recognisable species among these micro¬ 
scopically small plants i.s scarcely less—perhaps not less—than the number 
which otherwise constitute the vegetation of the earth. 
The question to be discussed now is the relation of the minute species 
belonging to the great group of fungi to the diseases and injuries of higher 
plants, especially those which we cultivate. When a parasite is spoken of, 
most minds turn at once to the animal species, and some sort of an insect or 
allied thing is thought of. We, however, may observe that there is no nearer 
relation between fungi and insects than there is between Thistle-down and 
birds, if they do resemble each other somewhat in place of habitat and effect. 
The plume of a Thi.stle seed passes through the air—so does a bird, but this 
does not express similarity of origin and life. A fungus is sometimes found 
on a distorted and injured leaf, and on another similarly affected, so far as 
common observation goes, a company of plant lice are discovered. Both may 
be_the cause of similar and perhaps serious injury, but no one argues from 
this the closeiiess of their relationship. Plants are as truly parasitic on 
plants and animals as are small members of the zoological world on the 
larger ones. For the present we are to do with parasitic plants, and of these 
only such as belong to the fungi. 
There is now just enough known of these minute living and growing 
things to make us aware that the injuries caused by them are very great, but 
not enough to permit us to say how great the destruction is which can be 
clearly traced to their effects. The large proportion of even the best 
informed cultivators know, in a practical sense, really little of the various 
kinds of fungi affecting crops, and still less of their peculiarities of life 
history and development. Nor is this to be accounted to the discredit of the 
intelligent and active body of men devoted to horticultural pursuits, ordi¬ 
narily as wide awake and enterprising as the members of any trade or pro¬ 
fession whatever. The fact is, those who have the opportunity and means, 
and who make the matter a special study, get along slow enough, and are to¬ 
day groping in the dark for the factors of many an unsolved problem. 
Nothing, we may say, can be done without a compound microscope ; and, 
however much we admire the skill and ingenuity which have produced so 
■w^onderful and so perfect an instrument, and how much soever we feel our¬ 
selves indebted to it for the knowledge we possess, still it is at the best a 
tedious thing compared with that of ordinary vision, to gain information 
concerning living things through the lenses of a fine and efficient micro- 
scrope : much more so with a poor instrument. When stock break through 
the fences into an orchard, when rabbits gnaw the bark, and even when 
rnost insects bore the wood, nibble the leaves, or sting the fruit, we can see 
the depredators and readily observe their methods, as well as quickly under¬ 
stand the extent and probable duration of the injury ; but in most cases the 
presence even of these invisible fungi is not usually suspected until the prized 
product of our culture is not only damaged but shows this damage through 
its decline and perhaps death. Investigations at this stage may fail entirely 
to reveal the source of the mischief, the mischief-maker having disappeared. 
it is not therefore wonderful that many do not recognise in parasitic 
fungi serious enemies to the production of fruit and other crops. When they 
are really known to occur in connection with a disease we can excuse the 
doubts so often expressed in regard to their being the cause of the malady 
rather tha,n results of other causes. To further use the illustration already 
introduced, if a cow steal in through an open gate, and in a few minutes 
reduce a choice evergreen shrub from a thing of beauty to a ragged, mis¬ 
shaped object of puty, no one thinks of accusing the gate as the direct agent 
in the twisting and scarring of the limbs, wherever the responsibility of the 
loss may rest. The condition of the gate allowed the cow to enter, and 
perhaps better attention to the former rather than shooting the latter may 
be the proper mode of preventing a repetition of the disaster ; still all agree 
that it IS the animal which does the business. She is the immediate and 
active factor in the case, without which, whatever the opportunities and 
conditions, the damage_ would not have been done. It is the animal, there¬ 
fore, to which we in this instance attribute the mischief, and our methods of 
protecnon are_ based upon our knowledge of her habits, propensities, and 
powers. It IS in this way that we arrive at the idea of, and the proportions 
for, a fence as a barrier, of the nature and qualities of a gate and its fasten- 
ings, and of laws, and penalties, and pounds. 
_ Now a parasitic fungus, being very low in the scale of organic existence, 
H much more subject to the peculiarities of conditions than is the illustrative 
animal; but in a very marked degree the same ideas and reasonings are as 
appropriate in the one as in the other case. A certain rust or mildew occurs 
on a crop after a summer shower, and we think we have reason to assert the 
rust or mildew would not have appeared had the weather continued dry and 
clear. Shall we now say that the injury is directly due to the shower ? We 
do not perceive the invasion of an active agent of the destruction ; indeed 
nothing of this kind can be seen with unaided eyes. We only know that in 
one case the Wheat plants are killed, in another the Peaches rot while still 
hanging upon the tree—just as a blind man may discover the injury to his 
favourite Fir without suspecting at first his neighbour’s cow or the unlatched 
gate. If he knew nothing about such a possession by his neighbour, and 
nothing of the food and habits of the animal, he might not discover at all 
the real cause of the mischief. Knowing, however, something of these 
things, he gradually ascertains what the trouble came from and how it 
happened by fumbling over the torn blanches, finding on their jagged ends 
little tufts of hair, by feeling on the ground and recognising characteristic 
imprints there, by following these one by one, by a slow and tedious method 
to the open gate. To one blessed with eyesight and the requisites of know¬ 
ledge, a glance would have sufficed to comprehend the whole matter. We 
must, however, in most cases compare the investigator of parasitic fungi to 
the blind man who is otherwise prepared to solve the question presented, 
and the non-microscopical worker to him who without eyes has also no infor¬ 
mation about such animals. When the microscope even imperfectly reveals 
a something as to the possible agent of destruction, in a direct sense, in the 
case of rust or rot, he who would rationally understand the true cause and 
cure of the malady will assiduously follow such indications as are presented 
of the mischief-maker, though in the following he is quite blind, except as 
artificially aided, and utterly unable to feel. Simple minuteness must not be 
allowed to shake one’s faith in the possibility of effects. The proboscis of a 
mosquito is as effective, after its kind, as that of an elephant. The shells of 
organisms, too small to be seen without the compound microscope, have 
added a thousandfold more to the crust of the earth than have the skeletons 
of all the larger animals. It was the little foxes that spoiled the Vines, in 
Solomon’s estimation. 
After much research, provided by the best instruments of our day, the 
writer cannot avoid the opinion that parasitic fungi are very often and as 
truly the real cairse of the disease and injury in the plants as in the cow in 
the illustration given. If it is held that the special conditions of the plant, 
or of the weather, or both are required to favour these growths, no negative 
reply need be given. But not unsimilar conditions exist for the development 
of all organic things, man himself included. He thrives abundantly in the 
temperate regions of the earth, providing the soil is good and enemies are 
not too po werful; while he fails outright in his attempts to even visit the 
North Pole, much more to erect there the capital of a prosperous and home- 
loving people. Failure after failure sometimes attends, without apparent 
reason, the endeavours to introduce fruits from one region to others of the 
same latitude and seemingly similar climate. How often has the European 
Vine been brought to America without successful establishment! On the 
other hand, a scarcely noticeable plant in its native soil becomes in other 
localities an obnoxious weed, or an important addition to the fields and the 
markets. Whoever dreamed that our little Waterweed, Anacharis canadensis, 
inconspicuous in our streams, would become a pest in the English rivers, 
choking the waters and even impeding navigation ? What prophecy pro¬ 
nounced the wonderful results of the introduction of the Potato in Ireland— 
the “ Irish ” Potato until this day, though the plant is a native American ! 
The various kinds of fungi form no exception to the general law that 
peculiar, sometimes not apparent, conditions specially favour or hinder 
development, and these specially favourable conditions for a parasitic fungus 
may or may not be conducive to the best growth of the parasitised plant. 
The peculiarities of weather favourable to the growth of the Maize are not 
usually well suited for Wheat, yet seem to be in at least a general way to 
the little vegetable growth within the tissues of the Wheat which we call 
“ rust.” In this case the rust-plant becomes enormously multiplied and 
seriously destructive, while the results would have been less marked had the 
Wheat retained its full vitality and resisting power. We shall make a long 
step in advance in the practical study and treatment of diseases of plants 
due to fungi, when we thoroughly recognise the fact that the rusts, smuts, 
rots, mildews, dec., are really vegetable growths subject to certain conditions, 
and as dependent upon these for an abundant development as are the valu¬ 
able products of our gardens, orchards, and fields. There is with the one, 
and with the other, nothing like chance; neither is the growth of fungi so 
wonderfully sudden and phenomenal as is generally supposed. In very many 
cases the spores of parasitic fungi constitute relatively the only conspicuous 
part of the plant, and these are often matured in prodigious numbers within 
a short time ; but this does not necessarily mean that the entire life of the 
plant is very brief. A Mushroom is ordinarily made the type of rapid and 
short-lived growth, yet the vegetating portion of the plant rather slowly 
accumulates the reserve material by which this quick apparent development 
is made possible. So smut that fruits only in the ovary of Wheat, and 
seems to come in a day, grows alt season through in the tissues of the stem, 
preparing for the apparently sudden development. So, too, a sudden change 
in the appearance of a parasitised plant may be the result of prolonged disease, 
just as an impetuous land slide may owe its origin to the slow undermining 
of trickling water, as well as to an earthquake. 
Having gained the idea that the various rots, rusts, and blights, caused by 
fungi, are the results of specific organic growths, each producing character¬ 
istic effects, limited like other living things by external conditions and each 
subject to its own peculiarities of life and development, we may next inquire 
what some of the general facts are found true of these fungi as a whole.— 
{Proceedings of the American Pomological Society.) 
(To be continued.) 
HELENIUMS. 
With the exception of H. setigerum, perhaps better known under 
the pseudo-name of Amblyolepis setigera, and H. liniarifolium, all the 
Heleniums in general cultivation are useful hardy perennials. H. 
autumnale, the most common in gardens, and of which there are many 
varieties, well deserves the place it has gained, both for its ornamental 
