January 14, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
25 
attention than the majority of plants in present favour, but that they 
can be grown well, even in towns, many proofs may be found. 
They need a very light compost of equal parts peat, leaf soil free 
from all woody particles, and sand, well incorporated, and if this is 
placed in pans good clean drainage must be first supplied liberally. 
Shallow pots plunged in moss or clean white spar under a bellglass 
have a pleasing appearance in a stove, and both moisture and tem¬ 
perature can be then easily regulated. Small light frames are sometimes 
employed when the collection includes a number of plants, but they 
are not seen to the same advantage in that way. 
Bertolonia Adolphe de Rothschild was shown at one of the Royal 
half a century to kill empiricism, for the Potato disease 
was first publicly noticed in this country in August, 1845, and 
prevailed equally in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Though 
publ'c notice was first taken of the disease in 1845 through ite 
wide and general prevalence, it was not ced in England in 1844 
by Mr. James Barnes and in that year prevai'ed in its worst 
form in Canada. In 1842 the disease was observed in St. Helena, 
and in 1841 Dr. Morren detected it in Belgium; and between 
1821 and 1830 the disease seriously injured the Potato crops of 
Germany. In 1834 the Potato crop in Scotland was a partial 
failure through “rot.” under which disease in Potatoes was 
known at a remote date. 
Fig. 4.—bertolonia ADOLPHE DE ROTHSCHILD. 
Horticultural Society’s meetings by M. Linden of Brussels early in 
1891, when first-class certificates were awarded for it, and for another 
named Madame L^on Say. In the first (the one figured) the veins 
and spots are bright rose on a dark green ground, in the other the 
veins are silver on a very dark base. In both the contrast is well 
marked. The leaves also are large and of fine shape. 
EXPERIMENTS IN TREATING THE POTATO 
DISEASE. 
The experiments in treating the Potato for the prevention 
of disease, wh'ch ha'e been recorded in the Journal of Horti¬ 
culture from time to time during the past year, prove con¬ 
clusively that growers are at last having a recourse to science. 
It certainly has taken them a long t'me to make up their minds, 
but prejudices always “ die hard. ’ Indeed, it has taken nearly 
There were, however, two kinds—namely, “dry rot” and 
“ wet rot,” which had regard to the time of year the Potatoes 
were diseased. In the case of dry rot, which occurred in early 
summer, the sets either decayed in the ground or produced 
short, weak, sickly haulms, curled and spotted leaves, small, but 
apparently sound, tubers. This disease seems to hive teen 
identical with “ curl,” a puzzling disease, as some observers have 
failed to discover, whilst others have detected a fungus in the 
diseased plants. Kiihn found no trace, but Hil'ier and Reinke 
discovered fungi in the interior of the diseased tissues, and both 
agree that the disease is hereditary, diseased tubers producing 
diseased plants, and that these plants are not capable of 
forming tubers. But the “ curl ” has another form, the plants 
apparently attacked from “without,” and commencing to curl at 
the edges of the leaves backwards extends to the whole leaf, and 
gradually back to the stem. There is no fungus in the upper 
part of the stems, but underground the stems are spotted, and 
