514 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[December, 
with short, very dense spikes of purple flowers; 
this is followed soon after by L. pycnostachya, which 
grows in rich soil to a hight of five to six feet, with 
a flower-spike four to five feet long. Following 
this are L. cylindracea, L. gramnifolia , and L. scar- 
iosa, the last, a quite common kind, being very differ¬ 
ent in the flower cluster, appearing in the form of 
buttons, whence it is often called Button-Snake- 
root; then last the dwarf and very showy L. elegans. 
This grows to a hight of about eighteen inches, the 
flowers first be'hg of a dark purple, finally chang¬ 
ing to white. The above species, with the one ex¬ 
ception noted, are all hardy, and we trust our read¬ 
ers will transfer some of them to their gardens. 
The Wax-work or Climbing Bitter-sweet. 
The Wax-work ( Celastrus scandens) is one of our 
most beautiful climbers, both for its fine foliage 
and the showy, orange-colored, round pods which 
open by three valves in autumn and expose the 
scarlet pulp which surrounds the contained seeds. ! 
These little pods, of the size of peas, which hang 
in graceful clusters of 10 to 25, are very lasting, 
and when gathered at the right time—just before 
they open—will retain their attractiveness through¬ 
out the winter. Their beauty in home decoration 
is now so well understood by the people in cities, 
that scarcely a pod is allowed to fully ripen, so rap¬ 
idly are they gathered up by boys and others, who 
sell them in 6mall bunches upon the streets'. 
Those who live where the wax-work grows and 
have never gathered it, should secure some of the 
fruit to use in winter bouquets. The accompany- 
-ng engraving shows the form of the cluster and 
the opened pod, but, of course, fails to give the 
rich and attractive coloring of the different parts. 
The leaves of the Climbing Bitter-sweet vary from 
egg-shaped, to elliptical, with deeply notched or ser¬ 
iate edges, green above and lighter below. The 
flowers are inconspicuous, yellowish-green, and 
somewhat fringed. As seen growing over stumps 
and rocks, and into the tops of tall trees, the Bit¬ 
ter-sweet is a shrub full of grace and beauty, and 
especially so in autumn, when the highly colored 
berries, in rich clusters, stand out in bright con¬ 
trasts with the dark foliage of the cedar, and other 
trees, upon which this climber is often found. 
The Pear and Peach Blight. 
BY PROr. T. J. BURRII.L. 
In very many examinations, during three years, 
of portions of pear trees suffering with the dis¬ 
ease usually known as Fire Blight, I had noted 
the presence of the minute organisms which we 
commonly call Bacteria. But as these living things 
are so generally found in decomposing organic 
materials, and as they had never been considered 
active agents in producing disease in plants, what¬ 
ever their relations may be to the 
contagious diseases of animals, 
little heed was given them in the 
search for a parasitic fungus to 
which the disease might be at¬ 
tributed. The failure to find such 
an agent, together with the gradu¬ 
ally accumulating evidence of the 
aggressive character of Bacteria 
in animal diseases, finally called 
closer attention to them as the 
cause and not the consequence of 
this terrible scourge of the or¬ 
chards. In June, 1880, careful 
investigations with this end in 
view were begun. The Bacteria 
were found to be the same, so far 
as a microscope with a power of 
one thousand diameters, and the 
best known definition could re¬ 
veal, in every blightiug portion of 
pear and apple trees examined. 
The change in the tissues was 
likewise found to be identical in 
all cases. The cell walls were left 
iutact, and the protoplasmic ma¬ 
terial remained until the tissues 
began to shrivel from drying; 
while, on the contrary, the starch 
granules stored in the cells gradu¬ 
ally disappeared. This was es¬ 
pecially the case in the cells of 
the bark. My colleague, Professor 
Weber, determined for me that 
carbon dioxide, butyric acid and 
hydrogen were the products of 
the fermentation, which, as was 
readily proved, took place in the 
still living, but diseased bark. 
On July 1, 1880, experiments 
upon healthy trees were begun, by 
inoculating them with the Bac¬ 
teria obtained from trees, in which 
the disease was in active progress. 
Most of the inoculations were 
made by inserting a sharp-pointed 
knife or needle smeared with the 
living Bacteria, into the bark of limbs upon healthy 
trees, and day by day careful records were kept 
of the results. In numerous instances the virus 
was applied to the exterior of the bark, or to un¬ 
injured leaves, without developing the disease in 
a single instance The following table shows the 
per cent of the successful inoculations, as became 
apparent up to and including August 14, 1880: 
No. of Ex¬ 
periments. 
Kinds of 
Trees. 
Virus from 
Pear. 
Virus from 
Apple. 
36 
Pear. 
54% 
72% 
2!) 
Apple. 
30% 
Not tried. 
4 
Quince. 
100% 
Not tried. 
The virus from the diseased apple tree is con¬ 
siderably more effective than that from the pear, 
but this most probably is due to a combination 
of causes now unknown. It, however, pretty clearly 
indicates the identity of the so-cal =d Fire Blight 
of the pear, and that very prevaleni isease in the 
Western States known as Twig Blight di the apple. 
The last is a misnomer, because the disease affecta 
the trunk as well as the young shoots, and not un- 
frequently causes the death of the whole tree. 
But it does not appear to run from the diseased 
green shoots down the older portions of the tree. 
The progress of the disease from the point of 
inoculation was always slow, never giving external, 
visible signs of its presence under eight days, and 
rarely extending after this more than half an inch 
per day. In some cases the leaves remained green 
three weeks after the bark of the shoot tearing 
them was thoroughly diseased. Ir other cases the 
bark of larger limbs was quite dead, yet the leaves, 
borne some distance above, remained green all 
summer. This slow progress of the disease shows 
that the destroying agents are not carried in the 
circulation of water or sap in the tree, as, indeed, 
the teachings of vegetable physiology would also 
indicate. The Bacteria—shown in fig. 2, magnified 
2,000 times—in some way not yet explained, pass 
from cell to cell. Figure 1, shows a thin section of 
the diseased bark from a pear tree, with the Bac¬ 
teria in the cells, magnified 500 times. 
Having recently received portions of peach trees 
affected with “ yellows ” from Michigan, I find plain 
indications of the similarity of this disease to that 
of the pear. The Bacterium is evidently specifi¬ 
cally different, but operates in the same way, caus¬ 
ing fermentation of the starch. The Lombardy 
Poplar is also destroyed in a similar way, but in 
this case the Bacteria follow wounds of insects. 
It is too early to propose, with much assurance, 
remedial measures, 
but the slow pro¬ 
gression of the dis¬ 
ease in the tissues 
gives reason for 
hope. Antiseptic 
washes may be suf- 
cient to prevent or 
cure. Pruning or 
paring away the in¬ 
fected parts, tak¬ 
ing due precau¬ 
tions not to spread 
the contagion by the process, certainly is effective, 
and by studying the earliest symptoms of the 
malady, the cutting may usually be very moderate. 
Cherries Once More.— During the past 20 
years or so cherries have been very scarce, instead 
of being as they formerly were so abundant in 
their season that in many places they could be had 
for the picking. The present year has shown some¬ 
thing like the former abundance, and those who 
had not cut down their trees in despair were re¬ 
warded for many years of failure. Whether the 
weather at blossoming time was especially favor¬ 
able, whether the natural enemies of the curculio 
have essentially diminished its numbers, or both 
causes combined, the result has been most 
gratifying. In the city one could buy a basket at 
a reasonable rate, and the licensed venders offered 
fine fruit at 5 cts. for what they are pleased to call 
a pound. Our experience this year allows us to 
understand the great popularity of the “Early 
Richmond,” with the western fruit growers. Our 
one tree, which in former years bore better than 
any other, was this year an example of fruitfulness, 
wonderful to behold ; looking up into the tree one 
saw a canopy of fruit, the leaves being in the mi¬ 
nority. This, by the way, is a most valuable fruit 
for cooking or canning, and when allowed to get 
| dead ripe, is not to be despised to eat “out of 
THE WAX-WORK OR CLIMBING BITTER-SWEET ( CehlStn/S scandens). 
JO ^ 
% mV 
Fig. 2.—BACTERIA SEPARATED. 
