October 3i, 1885. 
THE HARDENING WORLD 
133 
this to the seed having been grown in somewhat similar 
soil. It bears six to eight peas in a pod. 
Taylor’s Marrow. —This is a white wrinkled mar- 
low sent to me by a friend in Lancashire, in order to 
give it a change of soil for a season. Height 4 ft,, 
haulm strong, foliage large and succulent, a moderate 
cropper, but the pods are large and handsome, and 
well filled with eight to eleven large peas of fine 
quality. A good exhibition sort ; second year of trial. 
Duke of Albany. —This grows 6 ft. high and is 
rather long in the joint, the foliage is large and dark 
green ; a good cropper. Pods large and handsome, of 
the same colour as the foliage, and containing eight to 
eleven fine large peas of superior quality. I grew this 
also last year and it has maintained its reputation ; 
without doubt, it is the finest and best coloured exhi¬ 
bition variety yet raised 
400 Fold Wrinkled Marrow. —This is a won¬ 
derful cropper here, and stands the smoky atmosphere 
well. It was, if I mistake not, raised by Messrs. 
Bunyard, of Maidstone, but it is not up to the standard 
in flavour ; nevertheless, I grow it for its productiveness 
and for a change. Height 5 ft., podding in pairs from 
bottom to top of the haulm. It bears fine handsome 
pods, which, when' filled are perfectly round, and the 
peas inside are so closely packed as to flatten themselves 
one against the other, -which, swelling outwardly, 
sometimes bursts the pods. 
Hallamshire Hero. —This is - a white wrinkled 
marrow, a Sheffield variety, 4 ft. high, and very produc¬ 
tive ; pods in pairs, seven to nine peas in each, and of 
good quality. This I grow for a late crop, as it is not 
subject to mildew and will bear right away into 
November if not cut down by frost; a good hardy late 
sort, as proved by two year’s trial. 
The following will be added to my general list :— 
William Hurst, 400 Fold Wrinkled marrow, Duke of 
Albany, and Hallamshire Hero.— B. L., Bindley, Hud¬ 
dersfield. 
-- 
PEACH BLISTER. 
There is more than one kind of Peach Blister. 
Peach leaves are often twisted and blistered by cold 
winds and the attacks of plant lice, but the best known 
and the most destructive form of Peach Blister is caused 
by a fungus named Ascomyces deformans, B. The 
they constantly bud and re-bud from the side, in the 
manner of the Yeast fungiis. This curious observation 
of budding was first made by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley in 
1865, and published in the Journal of thk Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society for that year. The fungus of Peach 
Blister sometimes grows on the Almond as well as on 
the wild and cultivated Cherry. 
Pear Blister. 
An allied fungus named Ascomyces bullatus, B, is 
the cause of one form of blister and distortion in Pear 
leaves. The blistering caused by the Ascomyces is easily 
distinguished from other blistering by the pulverulent 
waxy bloom on the injured places ; in some instances, 
the damaged portions become black, and drop away from 
the leaf. Like the last, the fungus is a true parasite, 
the spawn traverses the interior of the leaf, and the 
perfect fungus at length loosens and fractures the cover¬ 
ing membrane, and is seen on the leaf surface. In the 
latter position it matures and distributes its spores or 
seeds. With the aid of a microscope, the fungus can 
be seen pushing itself outwards through the little 
fissures it has made in the leaf membrane. When 
magnified to 400 diameters, the fungus is seen as at A 
Fig. 2, the hyaline bags or asci open as shown at B, and 
Fig. 1.—Fungus of Peach Blister (Ascomyces deformans, B.) 
fungus attacks the foliage in the spring and early 
summer, and causes large, gouty, leathery, red swellings. 
On and bursting through these red swellings the fungus 
named Ascomyces may be seen with a lens, as a thin, 
white, pulverulent stratum. The fungus is a parasite, 
and its spawn or mycelium lives within the attacked 
leaf, the mycelium causes the leaf to become deformed, 
and the constituent cells of the leaf to increase in 
number and become abnormally large ; at the same 
time, the fungus changes the green colour of the leaf 
to a dull red vinous hue. If a section is made through 
a blister, it will be found that the red and diseased 
portion of the leaf is about four times as thick as the 
green undiseased portion. When the mycelium or spawn 
of the fungus has grown within the leaf for a week or 
two, it bursts through the external membrane of the 
leaf, generally on the under surface, sometimes on both 
surfaces. 
The fungus is an exceedingly small and transparent 
one, and when examined with the microscope and 
enlarged 400 diameters, it is seen as at A. Fig. 1. The 
white pulverulent stratum on the leaves consists of an 
inconceivably large number of extremely minute and 
colourless bags, termed asci by botanists, and each of 
these little bags contains eight transparent spores or 
seeds. The bags or asci when ripe, open at the top as 
shown at B, and the spores or seeds sail out into the 
air to propagate the disease. When the spores are 
further enlarged in a state of germination to 1000 
diameters, as shown at C, it will be remarked that 
Fig. 2.—Fungus of Pear Blister (Ascomyces bullatus, B.) 
the spores escape through the orifice. When these 
spores are enlarged to 1,000 diameters, they are seen 
when germinating as at C, in the style of the Yeast 
fungus, and like the fungus of Peach Blister. 
The Rev. M. J. Berkeley w r as the first to describe 
this fungus in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural 
Society for 1855, where he at first named it Oidium 
bullatum, but soon after he called it Ascomyces bul¬ 
latus ; this fungus sometimes 'grows upon the common 
Hawthorn. 
“Bag” Plum Disease, or Plum Blister. 
A third species of Ascomyces, named A. Pruni, Tul., 
attacks, with an effect similar with the two last, the leaves 
and fruit of the Plum. This parasite sometimes grows 
on the common Sloe as well as on the Bird Cherry— 
Prunus Padus, L. When it attacks the fruit of the 
Plum it causes it to increase enormously in size, to 
become hollow, and at length to shrivel and perish. 
In some instances we have seen the fruits so enormously 
distended and elongated that they have resembled 
Kidney Beans. In fact, we know of an instance where 
a correspondent wrote that the nature of one of his 
Plum trees had entirely changed, and that instead of 
bearing Plums it had produced a crop of Kidney Beans. 
The hollow growths are always covered with the white 
pulverulent stratum of the fungus parasite, which 
causes the distortion. In some districts the enlarged 
and diseased Plums are termed “Bag” Plums, “Sack” 
Plums, or “Bladder” Plums. 
A species of Ascomyces frequently attacks the leaves 
of Walnuts, an allied species invades Potentillas in 
America, another grows on Trientalis in Britain. Alders 
are often blistered by an Ascomyces, so are Birches, 
Poplars, Oaks, Hornbeams, Maples, Elms, and other 
plants. 
As the spawn of these fungi grows beneath the 
membranes of the fruits and leaves, it is obvious that 
remedies cannot easily be applied ; the only plan at 
present known for lessening the attacks of the pests 
found under Ascomyces is the destruction of the infected 
parts by fire. When practicable, the diseased foliage 
and fruit should be gathered and burnt; by this means 
an enormous number of the seeds of the fungus may be 
destroyed. 
The genus Ascomyces w 7 as founded and defined by 
Montagne and Desmariers in 1848. Mr. Berkeley, 
from 1855 to 1860, described the most important species 
of the genus. In 1861, a continental botanist, in 
ignorance (for which there was no excuse) of what had 
been done by his predecessors, renamed this genus of 
fungi Exoascus in place of Ascomyces Both words 
have the same sense, and refer to the character of the 
transparent bags or asci containing the seeds or spores. 
It is a discreditable fact that many continental botanists, 
and some juvenile botanists of this country, have 
adopted the spurious name of Exoascus, a name which 
cannot possibly stand. Sometimes the parasites have 
been named Taphrina, from the belief that the botanist 
Fries had them in view in 1815, but there is no evi¬ 
dence for this idea. Fries, in 1815, did not work with 
a microscope, and without a microscope, neither he, or 
anyone else, could characterise the genus of fungi to 
which Peach, Pear, and Plum Blister belongs. — Worth¬ 
ington G. Smith, Dunstable. 
X ■ lOOO 
Fig 3.—Funous of “Bladder” Plum Disease (Ascomyces 
Pruni, Tul.). 
This species of Ascomyces in considerably larger 
than the two last, as showm in Fig. 3. The microscopic 
asci are much longer, as illustrated at A, and the 
spores, seen emerging at B, are larger. The spores 
germinate as in the two last, as show 7 n enlarged 1,000 
diameters at C. A second and distinct species of 
Ascomyces also at times attacks Plums. 
BERRIED PLANTS FOR WINTER 
DECORATION. 
{Continued from p. 125.) 
ArdIsia crenata. —This, when well berried, is a 
very ornamental plant. It is of dwarf compact habit, 
the leaves are of a bright glossy green, showing off the 
berries, which are bright scarlet, and borne in panicles, 
to great advantage. It requires stove treatment, and 
may be propagated either from cuttings or seed. Seed¬ 
lings make the best formed plants ; they should be 
grown on freely until large enough for flowering, when, 
if the plants are too vigorous, water should be withheld, 
and the plants will flower better after the pots are w 7 ell 
filled with roots. While the plants are in flower, they 
should have a position where the air can pass freely 
through them, otherwise the berries will not set well. 
Brown scale is perhaps their greatest enemy, and if the 
plants are not kept quite clean before they come into 
flower, the scale will very quickly infest the bunches, 
and it will be very difficult to dislodge them. 
Callicarpa purpurea is another very useful berried 
plant for the stove, its bright purple berries forming a 
very pretty contrast during the dull season of the year. 
It requires some care to grow this plant successfully. 
It may be propagated from cuttings early in the spring, 
and after the plants are w 7 ell established they may be 
grown on in a pit during the summer ; if treated this 
way they are not so liable to red spider as when kept in 
the stove during the summer. They should, however, 
be taken in early in the autumn, before we get cold 
nights, or the leaves w r ill be liable to fall off before the 
berries are ripe. They will thrive well in any good 
rich compost, but require care in watering and frequent 
syringing, except while the plants are in flower, when 
it is better to withhold the syringing until the berries 
aie set. 
Capsicums. —There are many very pretty varieties of 
these, and when well grown they are very useful for 
decoration. TheyTrequire to be grown on in rather a 
high temperature, but after the berries are ripened they 
will last a long time in a cool greenhouse. The best 
way to manage them is to sow the seed early in spring, 
and grow the plants on in a hot-bed, keeping them as 
close to the glass as possible, and they should have very 
little, if any, shade. They should be potted in good 
fibrous loam, w 7 ith a liberal addition of well rotted stable 
manure. Varieties : C. Little Gem (Williams) is one 
of the best red fruited kinds for decoration, the plant is 
very dwarf and compact in habit, and the berries, which 
are small, are produced in great profusion. The Long 
Red and the Long Yellow 7 are also good sorts to grow 7 . 
C. Yellow of Nocera (Henderson), is a very showy 
