450 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 18. 
Potatoes were thrice as numerous as in any other part of 
' tlie field. 
, One of my neighbours told me, some time ago, tliat in her 
cottage garden she had a narrow belt of Potatoes, badly 
. diseased, of about two feet in width. This lay in a slanting 
; direction, across the drills, and was opposite a small wicket 
; gate by which the garden was entered. It was only by this 
: gate that the rays of the morning sun could reach the 
I Potatoes; the hedge on one side, and a rough fence, well 
j hedged up with nettles, on another, shading the Potatoes, 
■ except at the wicket. I was told that there was not a 
' diseased Potato in any other part of the garden. These 
! are two cases umnistakeable. To-day, I asked the tenant of 
j a garden adjacent to the one irreviously mentioned, as to the 
I state of the Potatoes in his garden. He stated, that the 
I disease, last season, attacked the upper end of it. This is the 
I part that would be first reached by the early rays of the 
sun ; and he added, that in this part of his garden his Pota- 
: toes were always worst. There is no accounting for this 
: from difference of soil or treatment. It would be waste 
j both of time and space to follow this class of facts further, as 
I I could do easily. I am very sure that a little reflection on 
, the pai't of your numerous readers would evolve a great 
many similar examples. 
The amount of the examples I have given is this :—The 
leaf of the Potato being destroyed by frost, there follorved 
disease in the tuber. The leaf was not itself destroyed by 
disease. It has been often said, and more often thought, 
that the Potato disease began in the leaf, and passed down 
. through the stem to the tuber. This is certainly a mistake, 
i It is quite true that the disease in the tuber appears always 
I to follow the decay in the leaf ; and it is easy to conclude, 
1 from this circumstance, that it arises in the leaf, and passes 
thence to the Potato. But in the examples before us the 
leaf was killed by frost, or rather by the action of the sun’s 
rays on tlie leaf when in a frozen state; and tire leaf being 
killed, disease followed. As the leaf performs certain very 
I important functions which, when it is killed, it can no longer 
I do, disease results in some way or other from the cessation 
of these functions. Now, the living leaf, amongst other 
; things, has to throw olf matter which the plant has not 
1 been able to assimilate, and, probably, what may be called 
! dead matter also ; that is, matter ■which has already, at some 
! stage of its growth, formed a part of the plant, but which is 
; thrown oft' again, just like that waste which is always going 
: on in an animal body. It is likely, therefoi’e, that it is in 
the matter which ought to escape from the leaf, and which 
; will be found from the tuber upwards, that the disease has 
i its first seat. It may be, that this dead matter is the disease, 
i or that on which the germ of the disease, previously exist- 
I ing in an undeveloped state in the tuber, feeds. This can 
only be determined by observation, and 1 think it a matter 
quite capable of being so determined. AVhen the Potato is 
in a growing state, and when the leaf becomes affected 
i (perished by cold, as I believe), suppose that a person 
i thoroughly acquainted with vegetable structure, not only the 
form, but the elements also, and with vegetable physiology 
and pathology, should take a Potato-plant tuber and liaulm, 
and observe, with a good microscope, its internal con¬ 
ditions ; let him take plant after plant, and pursue his 
: observations day by day, and I am sure he will not liave to 
. do this many days before he finds the disease; and I should 
j expect him to be able, from such a course of observation, to 
tell us something more than wo know now of the nature, 
the rise, progress, and history of this formidable disease. 
It is not even necessary to wait until the leaf has perished; 
it may be destroyed artificially, or its pores closed so as to 
prevent it discharging its functions, which would, of course, 
just effect what the frost did ; and let this experiment be fol¬ 
lowed by persevering observation. The practical use which 
we should make of our facts is, unquestionably, what your 
correspondent of last week urges—plant early, and when 
the leaf is afieeted, believe that it indicates a danger near at 
hand. Vullimj the haulm (not pulling it) when the leaf is 
afieeted would allow it to bleed, to use a common phrase, 
and discharge that matter wliicli cannot escai)e from the 
dead leaf, and the presence of which in the stem and tuber 
appear to be either the direct cause or occasion of the 
disease.—B. 
P.S.—The Cottage Gauueneh of Febru-ary 15th has 
just come to hand, and as it is there stated by a corres- 
j)ondent, “ that had I looked, I should have seen disease 
before the visitation of frost; ” I reply, that I frequently 
examined that lot of Potatoes dming the period of their 
growth, and neither in tuber or top was there the slightest 
trace of disease before the frost. In one week after, I found 
diseased tubers, and in three weeks they were a mass ot 
disease. Tlien, about the noon day sun. I had a lot of the 
same sort of Potatoes in another part of the garden, planted 
on the same day, as I have already stated, with the frost 
lot; they were fully exposed to the noon day sun, but they 
were so far shaded from the morning sun, were very slightly 
touched with frost, and about one tuber in fifty bad. So 
the noon-day sun did not damage them. 
[Is not this difficulty in the way of the opinion that Frost 
is the cause of the Potato Murrain? The disease has only 
recently appeared, yet Potatoes have been subjected to 
similar frosts ever since their introduction.— Ed. C. G.] 
RUSTIC ADORNMENTS.=i< 
Nothing could be more seasonable than this beautiful 
book of Mr. Hibberd’s, for there never was a time when 
Natural History was more popular than it is at present. 
Go where you will, you find one absorbed in the study of 
Ferns, another in Sea-weeds, while, in numerous instances, 
you may meet with those who have even seized upon the 
mighty deep, and caused it to give up some of the curious 
living creatures that are in it, to aid them in the pursuit of 
their favourite study. There are no pursuits which are, to 
our mind, more delightful than those on which Mr. Hibberd 
treats ; and while they form, in .m eminent degree, what he 
has styled them, “Rustic Adornments,” we, at the same 
time, enjoy them more acceptably as “Recreations for Town 
Folk in the Study and Imitation of Nature.” For town folk 
to attain such an end, we strongly recommend to them the 
work before us, which treats of the Aquarium, the Wardian 
Case, the Fernery, the Aviary, the Apiaiy, and many other 
riu’al pursuits. It is beautifully illustrated, and, as a present 
to those whom we love or esteem, we do not know anything 
more appropriate. On the Aquarium, Mr. Hibberd says:— 
“The Aqiiairum is one of the latest and choicest of in¬ 
ventions for the rustic adornment of a home, and affords, 
at a comparatively small expenditure, an immense return in 
the way of instruction and amusement. Its vei’y difficulties 
enhance the power of interesting, and add a zest to the en¬ 
joyment of success. Considered as a domestic ornament, 
it is unsurpassable, and, Avhile in its humblest form, it pre¬ 
sents a constant succession of beautiful and novel objects; 
so to all the accessories of artistic decoration it adds the 
charm of life, in some of its most beautiful and strange de¬ 
velopments. Tl)e merest glimpse of water is always re¬ 
freshing to the eye ; its clear, cool aspect; the mingling of 
many colours and forms; the peculiar growth of aquatic 
plants, and the still moi’e curious forms and movements of 
aquatic animals, combine to form an assemblage of delightful 
and ever-changing pictures. 
“ The Naiads need no longer dwell in forest lone, dipping 
their white feet in streams haunted only by the robin and 
the humble-bee, but may sport in gay drawing-rooms, in 
homely parlours, in the study of the recluse, or the chamber 
of the valetudinarian. 
“ The Aquarium exemplifies, in an instructive manner, the 
great system of compensation, which, in nature, preserves 
the balance of equilibrium in animal and vegetable life. 
Researches into the chemistrv of animal and vegetable 
bodies, and especially of the effects they severally produce, 
by respiration, on the medium surrounding them, have re¬ 
sulted in the conclusion, that animals and vegetables supply 
each other with the gases most essential to existence. What 
the one exhales as efi'eto and obnoxious, the other absorbs 
for the highest uses of vitality. Animals take oxygen from 
the medium in which they live, and, in return, exhale car¬ 
bonic acid. Vegetables, also, absorb oxygen gas, and give 
out carbon; but they, also, absorb the latter in greater 
quantity than they exhale it, and, during their season of 
♦ Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste, and Recreations for 
Town Folk in the Study and Imitation of Nature, by Shirley Hibberd. 
London : Groombridge and Sons. 
