408 
[ May 19, 18S7. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Roots on Vine Rods (W. B.). —We shall he glad to see samples of the 
Grapes when it is convenient for you to send them, together with notes on 
the renovation of the Vines. If there is something left “ unsaid ” on the 
subject by all means let us know what it is. We have long known that 
soft rampant growth in a very damp house, and the roots of the Vines in 
poor soil, are favourable conditions for the emission of roots from the rods. 
Papers at Gardeners’ Meetings ( F . (?.).—It is not the rule for the 
papers that are read at gardeners’ meetings to be printed and published 
officially, for the sufficient reason that with very few exceptions indeed 
there could he no adequate return for the outlay incurred in such publica^ 
tion. We have published many excellent papers that have been sent to us 
after they were read, and there are others that deserve a wider audience 
than that composing a meeting in a room, however large it may be. We 
have not seen the one to which you allude. 
Insects on Vines ( Hambledon ). — The dead insects, that are much 
crushed, resemble the winged form of thrips. The live specimen on the leaf 
took its departure the moment the box was opened in the quick manner 
peculiar to thrips. These insects are very injurious, and you mil do well 
to fumigate the house lightly on two or three consecutive still evenings. 
A strong volume of smoke would injure such thin leaves as those sent, 
which are, moreover, scorched, the discoloration not being due to the 
attacks of insects of any kind. We find no trace of the presence of the 
phylloxera on the foliage, whatever there maybe on the roots. The Vines 
are obviously in a debilitated state, and remedial measures were suggested 
in our former reply. 
Width of Peach Case (B. B. W .).—For a Peach case against a wall 
9 or 10 feet in height, wc consider G feet a suitable width, in fact we have 
four similar structures which answer perfectly. The trees are on the back 
wall, the front being utilised for Tomatoes trained to a trellis 6 inches from 
the glass. The structures have 2 feet 3 inches front lights, or with the 
bottom and top plates are 2 feet 9 inches high in front and upright. They 
have also top lights 3 feet wide, and sloping so as to cover a width of 
2 feet 6 inches, and every alternate top aDd front light is made to open. 
This insures thorough ventilation. The other part of the roof is fixed. 
There is no reason why the house should not he 8 feet instead of 6 feet 
wide, only little is gained in area thereby commensurate with the greater 
distance of the glass from the Peach trees. 
Cucumbers not Swelling (J. G.). —The Cucumbers you have sent are 
free from disease, and their refusal to swell after attaining a length of 
G inches or so we attribute to the soil being dry at the bottom of the bed. 
Make an examination, and let it be thorough, and if you find the soil dry 
pour in water until it is quite moist, and do not let it get dry again. We 
once inspected a house of Cucumbers in charge of an excellent gardener, 
in the same condition as yours appear to be. On suggesting dryness as 
the cause he triumphantly dug into the bed, showing us the moist soil; 
he was urged to dig deeper, and was soon convinced where the fault lay. 
He was taken quite by surprise, quickly applied the remedy, and was 
rewarded with an abundant crop of fine fruit. That was not the first 
instance that came under our notice of Cucumbers refusing to swell under 
the conditions indicated, nor the last. 
Pears Falling —Warts on Vine Leaves (Beatrice). —Tbe Pears fall be¬ 
cause of defective fertilisation during the blossoming period, and the black 
matter on them is a fungus that takes possession of fruits that are practi¬ 
cally dead. We cannot say why fertilisation was not completed; there may 
have been a deficiency of pollen, or dull weather might have prevailed, 
thus preventing its dispersion; or again, the organs may have been injured 
by cold, or shrivelled too quickly on a bright sunny day when the roots 
were dry for an hour or two. There is also another matter. As the trees 
have not been disturbed for two years they may not be in the best condi¬ 
tion for producing blossoms with all the parts fully developed for fructifica¬ 
tion. It is not a good plan to thin fruit till the setting is completed. There 
is no red spider nor any other insects on the Vine leaf. Its condition is 
the consequence of some error in ventilation. Read our reply to “ J. L. A.,” 
page 364, which applies equally to your case. 
Applying Wood and Coal Ashes to Lawn Tennis Ground (IF.).— 
The dressing consisting of a good layer of ashes, more than half wood 
ashes would most likely burn the grass if the summer following its applica¬ 
tion should prove hot and dry. The coal ashes used in moderation would 
improve the surface if it be wet and heavy, but they should not be those 
of furnaces where there is a powerful draught. The ashes from a house 
are most suitable, and they should be passed through a sieve with half¬ 
inch mesh, and afterwards be washed, using a sieve with ^-inch mesh, 
retaining that in the sieve only. A bushel per rod of this stuff would tend 
to make the surface drier and more springy, without interfering with the 
growth of the grass. A dressing of wood ashes, of which a peck per rod is 
sufficient to apply at once, would destroy moss, and cause a better growth 
of grass, especially of Clover, which, however, it is undesirable to en¬ 
courage, and it would be still further improved by using the wood ashes 
with an equal proportion of quicklime and soot well incorporated, apply¬ 
ing during moist weather in April, and again with the first moist weather 
after midsummer, at the rate of half a peck per rod. If the land be mossy 
and thin the quantity may be doubled. 
Anemones Diseased (A. L .).—The leaves you have sent are attacked 
with the Anemone fungus, iEcidium quadrifidum, which has been figured 
and described as follows by Mr. Worthington G. Smith :—“ If a leaf is 
gathered from an Anemone suffering from disease, and the under surface 
is examined, it will be found, as at a (fig. 71), covered with a vast number 
of httle yellow dots or cups, accompanied by an equally large number of 
minute black spots, the latter too small to be seen in the natural size 
illustration at a. The name iEcidium is one form of a Greek word 
meaning a httle chamber—a very appropriate name, as we shall see 
further on; quadrifidum means that the mouth of the burst fungus cup or 
chamber is (or rather should be) divided into four. This specific name is 
a very bad one, for the mouth of each cup, as may be seen at b, is gene¬ 
rally lobed and torn in a very irregular manner, seldom or never pre¬ 
senting four parts only. Under the microscope each yellow spot or 
pustule on the leaf is seen as a deep little cup, as at B, with frayed edges. 
The edges, which in the mature examples turn outwards, at first covered 
over the open part of the cup when it was in a ball condition. As 
maturity is reached the ball bursts, and the frayed edges turn back as 
illustrated. The investing cup itself is composed of a single thickness of 
minute cells or bladders packed side by side like the cells of a honeycomb. 
These constituent cells or bladders are shown in the frayed edges. The 
cup itself is not an empty one, but on the contrary is full of microscopic 
globular balls, like minute grains of yellow pollen; these bodies, also 
shown in the middle of the cup in the illustration at b, are the spores or 
reproductive bodies of the fungus, roughly answering to the seeds of 
flowering plants. The spores of course, like ovules, are female. Three of 
the black dots are also shown—one is marked at c. These are glutinous 
little spots, termed by botanists spermagonia, or male bodies containing 
male fertilising atoms named spermatia, roughly answering to the pollen 
of flowering plants. Some of the httle round spores out of the iEcidium 
cup will be seen sticking on to the httle black glutinous discs, or on the 
fine spermatic threads growing out of the disc at c. The fine hues seen 
outside the frayed edges of the iEcidium cup represent the lines of junction 
of the cells which go to form the lower cuticle of the Anemone leaf. Here 
and there httle openings occur, as in the three shown near d. These 
openings are the stomata or organs of transpiration of the plant; through 
these little orifices the plant exhales water in the form of vapour. In dry 
weather the little openings keep closed, so that the plant may not perish 
by losing all its moisture in the form of vapour, but in damp weather the 
httle mouths stand elastically wide open, so that the plant may be bene¬ 
fited by the damp air. It commonly happens that when fungus spores 
Fig. 71.—.Ecidium quadrifidum. 
germinate on the under surface of a leaf in humid weather, that the fine 
spawn threads from the spores find out these mouths of transpiration, and 
so get inside and amongst the tissues of the leaf by the open doors. 
Sometimes the thread of the fungus is of such a nature that it sets up 
putrescence in the course of growth. This is the case with the spawn of 
the fungus of the Potato disease; it gets inside the leaf by the httle open 
mouths or organs of transpiration. It then not only fives inside the leaf 
and sets up putridity in its progress of growth, but it sends out new spawn 
threads from the inside of the leaves through the mouths outwards. This 
process soon chokes up all the stomata and reduces the stem as well as the 
leaves to a putrid mass. The iEcidium cups and the male organs termed 
spermagonia are embedded in the substance of the Anemone leaf, and it is 
desirable to see them both in section. For this purpose a leaf must be cut 
in two with a keen lancet, and the cut must be made through both 
iEcidium and spermagonium' When the leaf is divided, a slice, or rather 
film of inconceivable thinness, must be sliced off the cut surface and trans¬ 
ferred to a slip of glass. If the slice is successfully made we Bhall see the 
fragment as shown in the lower illustration of fig. 71. The lower surface 
of the leaf is shown at e, and the upper surface at f. The epidermal cells 
top and bottom are colourless, not green. At a g two organs of transpira¬ 
tion are shown, both open and leading to the intercellular spaces between 
the constituent cells of the leaf. Between the two letters a a an immature 
iEcidium cup may be seen embedded in the leaf—a little chamber— 
full of spores or seeds—hence the name. Between e and o an immature 
dark-coloured spermagonium is seen embedded. At h a mature iEcidium 
cup is illustrated; the cup has burst through the lower cuticle of the 
