July 29, 1880. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
91 
extend from February to May ; the latter month, and even June, 
being considered the most certain time of germinating the seed, 
which fact ought to be noted by inexperienced growers.— 
W. IGGULDEN. 
[We have some Begonia flowers from Messrs. Sutton, which are 
very large and varied and brilliant in colour.—E ds.] 
THE HOLLYHOCK DISEASE. 
We much regret having received during the week examples of 
this disease from Wiltshire, South Yorkshire, Essex, and Surrey, 
which indicates that its outbreak is somewhat general. We can 
best reply to our correspondents by publishing the following ad¬ 
mirable engravings and notes of the disease by Mr. W. G. Smith, 
which appeared in our columns six years ago. 
“ Puccinia malvacearum first appeared in Chili on a species of 
Althaea ; it next appeared in Australia, where it proved extremely 
destructive to the Hollyhock (Althaea rosea, a native of China). 
Last June it was recorded from France, while at the beginning of 
July it had reached this country, where it immediately com¬ 
menced its ravages on our Hollyhocks with great virulence, and 
completely killed to the ground all the plants it attacked both in 
Fig. 19—PUCCIXIA MALVACEARUM, Mont. 
A, Hollyhock leaf infected with the disease (natural size). 
B, Pustules bursting through cuticle, with epidermal hairs, on which some of 
the spores are scattered. Enlarged forty diameters. 
C, Section through pustule (or sorus), showing the clusters of uni-septate 
spores in situ. Enlarged forty diameters. 
D, Group of uni-septate spores, seated on the distinct stems, or peduncles. 
Enlarged three hundred diameters. 
E, Hairs from Hollyhock leaf, to show proportion between the hairs and the 
fungus. Enlarged three hundred diameters. 
private gardens and in nurseries. From the south of England 
it rapidly spread to the north, and during the early spring of this 
year in certain districts near London nearly every leaf of Malva 
sylvestris was blackened by this new pest. It has also been 
recently common in France, attacking the indigenous Malvaceae. 
“ The Hollyhock disease is remarkable for its extreme virulence, 
for on affected plants a black spot is not merely seen here and 
there, as in common with many species of Puccinia, but the 
affected plants have every leaf blackened by these obnoxious 
pustules or sori, which are entirely composed of uni-septate spores 
seated on stems, as seen in section at c, magnified forty diameters. 
Every sorus contains more than ten thousand spores, and in the 
specimen sent for identification I counted more than a thousand 
sori on each leaf ; therefore each individual leaf was capable of 
producing ten million perfect plants of the Puccinia. Figures 
altogether fail to give any idea of the enormous reproductive 
