317 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 31,1858. 
rootlets of the plant; the tissue is a little swollen at the cir¬ 
cumference of the spots, so as to form a sort of raised ring, 
which is less strongly coloured. Gradually these spots enlarge, 
and assume a darker tinge, which passes at last into black. 
They increase insensibly, and, from the confluence of many in¬ 
dividuals, lose their original orbicular form. The malady, 
however, does not extend merely in width; the disease of the 
tissue penetrates into the substance of the bulb, destroying 
the walls of the cells and the fecula which they contain. At 
i this period those deep excavations commence, which do not 
Cease to be formed till the whole bulb is destroyed. The 
Cavity hollowed out in the substance of the bulb is not at 
first visible, in consequence of the persistence of the coat of 
the bulb, which forms a sort of tympanum round the cavity, 
and does not burst till a very late period. This happens at 
: last from the always increasing extension of the decay which 
I constitutes this formidable disease. When arrived at the 
i last stage, all the base and even the centre of the bulb is de¬ 
stroyed, and the whole presents to the eye nothing more than 
a black dust, formed by the remains of the parenchymatous 
cells of the peridia of a fungus of which I shall speak pre¬ 
sently j of the coats, or, according to M. Payen, of the tegu¬ 
mentary strata of the grains of fecula ; and, finally, which is 
not the least remarkable, of an insect which lives in the 
centre of these debris; but this insect is exactly the same as 
that which has been pointed out by M. Payer to M. Guerin 
Menneville as inhabiting the diseased Potatoes, and which 
1 the latter has named Tyroglyphus feculce. 
Now, if we make a vertical section passing through the axis 
of the bulb, and examine under a lens the relation of the 
parts, we perceive that beneath this pulverulent black stratum, 
composed of the productions I have just enumerated, the 
parencliym is of a reddish yellow tinge, and softened to the 
depth of from one-half to two-thirds of a millimetre ; beyond 
this second layer the substance of the bulb has at present re¬ 
mained sound. We want now to ascertain what a micro¬ 
scopic examination of the parts will teach further. In order 
to ascertain this, we must take with a razor an extremely thin 
vertical slice, comprising at once, for the purpose of com¬ 
parison, both the sound and diseased portions of the bulb ; 
if the slice be then placed on a slip of glass in a drop of 
water, a magnifying power of fifty diameters will show the 
whole at one view. The same slice should then be transferred 
to the plate of Scliiek’s Compressor, and after compression 
examined with a power of 380 linear. The cells which are- 
infested, and form the base of the excavation, will be found 
to have lost their transparency ; their once delicate tissue is 
thickened and granular ; their crystal - white has become 
dark-brown; and, finally, the fecula has vanished, or only a 
few scattered injured grains remain; meanwhile their poly- 
hedric form continues unaltered : this, however, is not the 
case with another stratum lying beneath the first, and which 
separates it from the sound parencliym. This is formed of 
cells perfectly hyaline it is true, but whose grains of fecula 
have entirely disappeared. It is about the eighth or tenth of 
j a millimetre in thickness. The absence of the fecula is not 
the only phenomenon which makes it remarkable. The pri¬ 
mitive dodecahedric cells, pressing against each other, form 
prisms of five or six faces, and of the length which I have 
! assigned to the whole stratum. These prisms thus disposed 
exhibit a number of transverse lines which are formed by the 
lines of junction of the faces of the cells. I cannot give a 
better notion of it, than by comparing it with the structure 
: of the axis of Chorda fdum, which I was the first to de¬ 
monstrate, with this ditference however, that in the Alga the 
! meshes of the net are, or appear to be, quadrilateral, and, 
besides, less pressed against each other. Finally, beyond the 
layer just mentioned, we find the parencliym of the bulb in its 
normal condition, and the hyaline cells, of which it is formed, 
filled with numerous perfectly healthy grains of fecula. 
The details into which I have just entered, respecting the 
f ravages caused by the Tacon, present the closest analogy 
I between that disease and the Potato murrain. Read, in 
fact, the descriptions which have been given of it, which, 
from its frequent occurrence, are unhappily too numerous; 
remark especially the identity of the injury to the tissues, the 
more or less complete evanescence of the fecula (an obser¬ 
vation already made by Fougeroux), the brown colour, and 
the granular thickening of the cells of the parencliym—all, 
even to the presence of Tgroglyphus feculce , confirms the 
analogy between the two diseases. And, if we look to the 
causes, and make a parallel between the conditions of develop¬ 
ment, we shall be the more convinced of the justice of the 
comparison. There would, indeed, be some essential dif¬ 
ference between them, were we agreed on the in dispensability 
of the presence of JBotrytis infestans on the leaves, Ac., of the 
Potato before the attack of the tubercles; but botanists are 
still at variance on this much contested point. 
I have shown above that Fougeroux compared the Tacon to 
bunt in wheat, but in this particular he is clearly wrong. 
The tissues affected belong to very different organs, and have 
nothing in common except enclosing in their cells amylaceous 
matter. The labours of the Messrs. Tulasne have shown that 
the morphosis of bunt ( Tilletia caries ) is different from that 
of smut ( Ustilago ), though at maturity it is scarcely possible 
to distinguish generically the species of these two genera. 
The progress of the malady and its consequence are, there¬ 
fore, quite different in the two plants. 
As to the means of arresting the propagation of the Tacon, 
or to prevent its reproduction the following year, in the 
absence of any observations of my own, I must again have 
recourse to the Memoir of M. Fougeroux. He informs us 
that the most approved remedy is immersing the bulbs in an 
alkaline solution, as in thick lime-water, &c., in which they 
are to be steeped for two hours. He proposes, also, leaving 
them some days in wine-lees. 
Fougeroux informs us, moreover, that the Rhizoctonia may 
exist at the same time on the Saffron bulb as the Tacon. 
I have said above that the coat of the bulb, blackened by 
the progress of the disease, retains for a long time its original 
form. On this a species of Perisporium is frequently de¬ 
veloped, which I have called P. crocophilum , Mont. It is 
characterised: “ Peridiis minimis ovoideo-globosis atro-ni- 
tentibus apice poro pertusis e basi fibras irradiantes emitten- 
tibus; nucleo primitus celluloso, cellulis subconcatenatis, 
sporis globosis minimis.”—M. J. B. 
I take the opportunity of adding to this memoir a few 
words on some bulbs of Tulips which were attacked by 
Sclerotium Cepce i Lib., and Sporotrichum polysporum , Link. 
I have laid before the Society of Biology an account of a 
disease very prevalent in Tulip roots sent me by M. Rayer. 
I have clearly established the fact that it is due to parasitic 
fungi. In some, between the scales of the bulb, I found a 
large number of globular grains, black and shining when 
fresh, and of the size of a grain of hemp. These parasitical 
bodies, already observed by Madame Libert in Belgium, and 
in England by Mr. Berkeley, upon bulbs, whose further de¬ 
velopment they had prevented, have been referred to Sclero¬ 
tium by these two cryptogamists. Other bulbs presented as 
the cause of evil a very different parasite from the first. The 
roots and the base of the scales were deformed by bundles of 
white threads, which, examined under the microscope, be¬ 
longed certainly either to Sporotrichum polysporum, Lk., or 
to some very nearly allied species.— {Horticultural Society's 
Journal .) 
BEE-KEEPING IN DEVON.—No. I. 
COMMENCEMENT OE AN APIAEY—SHALLOW 8-BAR BOXES 
versus 7-bar boxes—advantage oe a large swarm— 
DISADVANTAGE OF AN OLD QUEEN. 
In submitting to the readers of The Cottage Gardener 
some slight sketches of apiarian proceedings, I would premise 
that, although by no means a novice in bee-keeping, I am re¬ 
commencing the pursuit in a locality, which, being in the out¬ 
skirts of a large town, I have already proved to be but 
indifferently adapted for bee-pasturage, and in fact far below 
the general average of the county of Devon. 
In May last, I purchased three swarms, which were placed 
under a south-east verandah, about eight feet apart, and which 
I shall designate respectively Nos. 1, 2, and 3. 
No. 1 came home on the 29th May, weighed 3£ lbs., and 
the queen, having issued from an old stock which swarmed 
last year, cannot be more than a year old. Lodged in Taylor’s 
dividing hive, thirteen inches square, by seven inches deep. 
Right-bar hive. 
No. 2, on the 30tli May, weighed also lbs.; age of queen 
