234 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 29. 
as soon allow one spotted plant to remain in their 
collection as a farmer would permit a diseased sheep to 
taint his flock. My own limited experience does not 
lead me to this conclusion. I think those plants will 
only he affected that have been individually submitted 
to the predisposing causes. True, it may often happen 
that after one plant becomes spotted, others in its 
vicinity will become spotted likewise; but that is no 
proof of infection, though it may be a reminder that 
all these have been subjected to unfavourable influences. 
That amid such spotted plants there should be some 
vigorous and healthy, would not be conclusive evidence 
either way, as the natural constitution of the plant 
might bo stronger to resist the taint; or, as we believe, 
that strength of constitution might be able to resist the 
deleterious influences that injured others; or, what is as 
likely, these influences wore not brought to bear upon 
them in a similar manner, as a very little difference in 
the treatment, even as respects dryness and moisture, 
would make a great difference in the result. To make 
sure, however, and to act on the safe side, if the plant 
that gave the first signs of the spot was of no value, I 
would counsel getting rid of it; if valuable and desirable, 
I would not do so, but keep it a little by itself. 
3. Does the disease become inherent and constitutional 
I in the plant? Here, again, many say, Yes! and if so, j 
the keeping of such plants, or propagating young plants | 
| from them, would merely be doing what in us lay to ; 
i propagate a disease. Unless the plants are much in- j 
; jured indeed, so as to affect the stems as well ns the 
j leaves, I should be under no alarm of the disease spread¬ 
ing ; in other words, I do not consider the disease in¬ 
herent and constitutional, because I have found that , 
plants that were spotted one year were free from spot 
on the following year; and that the cuttings taken from 
them were also clean, greeu, and healthy. This result ; 
must be attributed to the disease existing chiefly in 
the foliage; nud when that is wholly removed, and the 
plants are cut down, the new leaves and shoots that are 
formed will give new and healthy vigour to the plants. 
Here, however, as in the last case, merely as a security, 
if I had healthy plants of the same lands as these j 
diseased, I would throw the latter away, and grow from 
the former. But unless the shoots were injured very 
much, I should be loathe to throw away a good and 
scarce variety. In general cases, I believe that the spot [ 
in the plants of this year need not be seen on the same 
plants next year. 
4. What is the cause of the spot? Here the theories 
are endless. Every grower, as be has a perfect light to 
do, assigning what, no doubt, appears to himself a satis¬ 
factory reason. 1 wish 1 could here do the same. The 
following is what experience and observation have led 
me to consider as the causes, but I by no means con¬ 
sider them fully satisfactory. The main cause I attri¬ 
bute to a close, cold, stagnant, moist atmosphere, 
especially in winter. The injurious influence is farther 
increased, when in these circumstances the soil about 
the roots is wet rather than dry; and again, these in- 
i fluences are farther increased when the plants had been 
I previously growing in a highisli average temperature, 
with only a small amount of sunshine; while, after this 
cooling and damping process, the sun shines rather 
bright for a few days, and we hastily think that the 
| plants will bo so fond of it after their cooling, that we 
never dream of giving them the slightest shade. Hence 
the difficulty of keeping the tenderer of the Pelargonium 
section, fancy, or florist, in cold pits, if anything is at¬ 
tempted beyond keeping them; and the failures that 
then must be calculated on at times. Anything like 
groicing in the first months of winter, by keeping them 
warm and closish, will receive a sad change when they 
must bo shut up to keep out the cold. In such cases, 
much may be done by preventing growth when the 
weather is mild, by abundance off air, and comparative 
dryness at the roots. But then these would be circum¬ 
stances different from what we have supposed to be 
predisposing causes. Let us glance at an imaginary 
case, the parallels for which may not infrequently be, 
found. These Geraniums, after standing, as was quite 
right, in the sun until the wood has hardened, giving 
them but little water in the meantime, were cut down 
at the end of July, were placed in a shady place, and a 
spare sash thrown over them, until the spurs and horns 
left pushed out young shoots for their buds. Then they 
were taken to the potting-slied, the old earth shaken 
from the roots, these roots pruned-in a little if they 
wanted it, and then potted in fresh soil, and very likely 
in pots a size smaller than they stood in before. The 
owner wishes to get them forward, and keeps the plants 
rather close and moist in the warm months of autumn. 
They are transferred in good time to the greenhouse, and 
the same means of getting them to grow are persevered 
with. The grower has been told that 45° is the lowest the 
plants should see at night, and November being warm, 
the natural and artificial climate combined is generally 
nearer 50° to 55° at night, while the days, though warm, 
are but sparingly brightened by sunshine. The plants 
are rather extra watered as a matter of course, and 
leaves get large and fine, and as the old saying has it, 
“ as green as Leeks.” In December and January a sudden 
change comes, the weather becomes misty and cold, the 
plants are saturated with moisture, all the lights are 
kept shut, and as visions of economy in fuel, combined 
with inattention, obtrude upon the scene, the plants aro 
considered perfectly safe if the thermometer is only a 
little abovo freezing point—nothing is thought of the 
danger of extremes. No account is taken of the amount 
of watery fluid stuffed into the plant in warmer dull 
weather, and which now can neither undergo elabora¬ 
tion, nor yet be got lid of by perspiration; and when, 
after a week, or a month, or a number of days of such 
treatment, in such circumstances, the mist having dis¬ 
appeared, the cold black frosts having said, for a time, 
good-bye, and the sun having once more appeared strong 
and bright in the heavens, not a doubt is entertained 
but these squashy leaves would rejoice in his light, and 
bold up their fronts as boldly as if they bad never luxu¬ 
riated save in bis presence, and had not been starved 
and swilled by turns in bis absence; and great is the 
outcry when indignant Phoebus allows bis rays to pene¬ 
trate and scald all the softest watery places, and thus 
prints his lessons as a beware and attend. 
The presence of the sun, in such circumstances, 
though it accelerates, is not indispensably necessary to 
such an issue. Continued moisture at the roots, with a 
stagnant, moist, cold atmosphere around them, will, 
from the debility thus occasioned, alone predispose this 
disease in the leaves; and that will be only accelerated 
in its manifestation when, from such coldness and 
moisture, the plants are hastily transferred, or allowed 
to remain in an atmosphere as kiln-dried as it was 
at saturation point before. How often are glasses shut 
in a mild day in winter, when the exciting influence 
of a moist atmosphere should have been counteracted 
with a free current of air; while the same glasses are 
freely opened in a sunny, frosty day, though the air is 
dry enough to crack and scorch the lips and cheeks of 
the hardiest beauty. It never strikes many of us that 
there could be any analogy in such circumstances be¬ 
tween our own skin and the leaves of tender plants. 
5. What are the palliatives for, and the preventions 
necessary against, the disease? First, as respects pal¬ 
liatives, there can be little done with large plants that 
are blooming early. Nothing remains but to remove 
the worst leaves after they get very unsightly; and as 
soon as the flowers begin to fade, sot the plants to dry 
in the sun, and prune back earlier than usual, thus get- 
