August 28, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
819 
DUTCH BULBS CHEAP. 
FRENCH BULBS CHEAP. 
ENGLISH BULBS CHEAP. 
SEE OUR WHOLESALE CATALOGUE OF BULBS, 
FREE ON APPLICATION, 
Containing List of all the best varieties of HYACINTHS, 
TULIPS, CROCUS, LILIUMS, DAFFODILS, IRIS, SNOW¬ 
DROPS, &c. _ 
WATKINS & SIMPSON, 
SEED AND BULB MERCHANTS, 
Spxetcr H'trcet, |gtrand, fgEondon, llp.fi. 
NEW CLEMATIS, 
“BEAUTY OF WORCESTER.” 
T3ICHARD SMITH & Co. are now book- 
^ ing orders for this charming novelty for delivery 
in September. For description and figure see Garden¬ 
ing World, July 3rd. Price, 5s. each. 
Special quotation to the Trade on application. 
St. John’s Nurseries, WORCESTER, 
NARCISSUS, “SIR WATKIN.” 
The largest stock of this (the best) Narciss grown, also 
all other varieties worthy of cultivation. 
PRICED CATALOGUE POST FREE ON APPLICATION. 
JAMES nrCKSOK & S; OSS' 
“NEWTON” nurseries, CHESTER. 
KENT: The Garden of England, 
Fruit Trees for the M on! 
GEORGE BUNYARD & GO.’S 
New (Copyright) Illustrated and Descriptiye 
CATALOGUE 
OF 
FRUIT TREES, 
Which contains “ a mine of useful informa¬ 
tion,” and specially written Articles for 
VILLA GARDENERS. 
May be had post free for six stamps from 
The Old Nurseries, MAIDSTONE. 
FLOWER SHOWS. 
National Chrysanthemum Society, Royal 
Aquarium, Westminster, 
G RAND EXHIBITION of Dahlias, Gladioli, 
Early Chrysanthemums, &c., Thursday and Friday, 
September 9th and 10th. Schedules free on application to 
WILLIAM HOLMES, Hon. Sec., Frampton Park Nurseries, 
Hackney. 
Revised official Chrysanthemum Catalogue, now ready, Gd. •per copy. 
/CRYSTAL PALACE ANNUAL EEUIT 
VJ EXHIBITION AND GRAND NATIONAL DAHLIA 
SHOW, September 3rd and 4tli. Schedules on application to 
Mr. W. G. Head, Garden Superintendent, Crystal Palace. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Amateurs’ Garden, the_ 823 
Basingstoke Horticultural S29 
Begonias, Messrs. Laing’s 823 
Burton-on-Trent Hort_ 828 
Camellias, propagation of 820 
Carnation & Picotee Show S27 
Carnations, indoor and out 826 
Chalfont Park. 824 
Chatsworth. S22 
Cheadle Horticultural_829 
Davenham Bank . 820 
Dimorphotheca pluvialis.. 826 
Earwigs and Chrysanthe¬ 
mums. 821 
Floral Styles . 826 
Floriculture . 827 
Flower Pots, improved.... 820 
Fordell, notes from . 823 
PAGE 
Gardeners’ Calendar. 826 
Glenhurst, Vines at . 825 
Horticulture at Newcastle 820 
Horticultural Societies .. 827 
Lselia Batemanniana. 821 
London Gardening. S24 
Lord, Mr. R., death of.... 830 
Maidstone Gardeners’ So¬ 
ciety . 820 
Obituary I... S30 
Peas, failures with. 823 
Potato Disease, the . 819 
Rhododendron javanicum.. 826 
Rosarian, a famous . S25 
Royal Hort. Society. 827 
Salads for winter . S26 
Scottish Gardening . 823 
Trowbridge Horticultural.. 828 
11 Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man."—B acon.- 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1886. 
The Potato Disease. —But the other day and 
we were enabled to remark that the customary 
period of the actual germination of the Potato 
fungus had passed by, and no evidences of the 
existence of the disease were apparent. Of 
course, whilst then a matter for congratulation, 
there was ample time for its appearance, hut 
with this condition—that the longer the attack 
was deferred the greater the probability that 
when delivered the results would be productive 
of no great injury. A month elapses and then 
there comes a change; the disease has but been 
dormant, it would seem, and has not disap¬ 
peared. So far from that being the case, there 
is just now, perhaps, hardly a plot of Potatos in 
the kingdom upon which evidences of the fatal 
spots may not he seen, and it is just possible 
that in some quarters, where seen in greater 
virulence, almost a panic may have ensued. 
Now, it is just at the moment when abundant 
evidences of the fungus are first seen that 
Potato growers are apt to lose their heads and 
proceed to rush up their crops, with the almost 
assured result that rot and decay will follow 
disastrously. Certainly, so long a period elapsed 
from the time of the first appearance of the 
Potato disease in this country before its real 
nature was understood, that it was not to he 
wondered at if men’s minds were easily influ¬ 
enced by alarm when the disease appeared to he 
rather more virulent than usual. It is no fault 
of scientists, or of the gardening press, if some 
still remain ignorant of the real character of this 
pest, of its fungoid nature, shown in the form 
of minute and (to the naked eye) invisible 
spores, which settle upon the Potato plants, and 
penetrating into the cuticle of the leaves as 
well as of the thin rind or bark of the stems, 
become living plants, as it were, within this 
plant organism, and existing upon this organism, 
in time literally eats it up or destroys it. Why 
this particular fungus should thus affect the 
Potato alone of common vegetables—or, indeed, 
of any other plants, the Tomato excepted—is 
difficult to understand; but just as small pox is 
a disease of the human family, or as other 
diseases seem to be the peculiarities of certain 
animals, so also are there plants which are 
subject to certain diseases, and those plants 
alone. 
Those who will place leaves of the Potato 
under any ordinary magnifying-glass cannot 
fail to have observed that the surfaces are ex¬ 
ceedingly hirsute or hairy, and hence once a 
minute Peronospora spore settles upon them it 
has ample means of holding its position. But 
we know also that this tiny spore needs 
moisture to enable it to germinate, and at this 
season of the year, apart from showers, of which 
there have been plenty of late, there is certainly 
ample humidity in the night air, and this con¬ 
densing, forms upon each leaf almost a flood for 
such a tiny active element as a fungoid spore to 
exist in. Next day, perhaps, black spots are 
seen on a few leaves, and a day later these have 
not only considerably increased in number, but 
the original ones have enlarged, and in a week 
or so, more or less, just as the iveather is humid 
or otherwise, the fungoid operates so destruc¬ 
tively that it*presently withers or eats up the 
haulm, and it almost disappears. Whiere this 
tiny hut terribly harmful spore came from it is 
hard to say. It had been for a year or so 
resting somewhere, and we can but suppose in 
the soil. How it got on to the plant, whether 
borne or lifted there by the air or how, is also 
not clear. We know it gets there, and almost 
over the kingdom in the same way it appears 
simultaneously. That would show that certain 
climatic conditions are needful to bring the 
resting spores into activity. 
Possibly in very hot, dry seasons they appear 
more or less, hut die of inanition from lack of 
fertilising moisture. In any case they are alive 
and active now, and hence it becomes a matter 
of the greatest concern what we shall do. Now 
the scientists, whilst thus so amply demon¬ 
strating for ns the nature, and to some extent 
the life history of the fungus, have been unable 
to do little for the gardeners in the matter of 
treatment beyond strongly recommending that 
upon the first appearance of the fungus spot in 
the haulm the tops should he pulled or cut 
away, and be burned or otherwise destroyed. 
Now it is difficult enough to so dispose of the 
haulm from a small plot, and it would be 
absolutely impossible so to get rid of the haulm 
from many acres, as the produce of top of some 
kinds would probably reach twenty tons per 
acre. Hence this suggestion is well meant, but 
impracticable ; indeed, if as Mr. Jensen has 
pointed out the haulm would now he literally 
alive with spores, the result of cutting or other¬ 
wise violently disturbing the haulm would he 
hut to dislodge the spores and fill the air and 
probably the soil with them. 
But this statement of Mr. Jensen is also one 
of exceeding interest, because he also strongly 
advises that none of the tubers he lifted for 
storing even for a few days at least until after 
the fungus has done its work in the tops, and 
has, as it were, from lack of food gone to rest. 
Thus it is bad advice on this showing, and cer¬ 
tainly from the promptings of experience, to 
urge the rushing up of Potato crops to escape 
the disease. Alm ost invariably it results in the 
realisation of the old adage about the frying- 
pan and the fire. In spite of all the rain we 
have had, however, the soil is not wet, and 
generally it is very dry; hence the tubers are 
safer buried than exhumed. The greater the 
soil covering over them the better; hence, 
also, the value of earthing up well and giving 
the rows ample room. A couple of weeks 
of dry warm weather may work wonders in 
maturing the Potato crop and in saving it. The 
same period of wet cold iveather would he pro¬ 
ductive of disaster. We can hut hope for the 
former, and that eventually the present visita¬ 
tion of the Potato disease may prove to have 
done little injury. 
--sSN-- 
GARDENING MISCELLANY. 
Meetings for Next Week. — Wednesday: 
Bath Floral Fete; Oxford Horticultural Society’s 
Show. Thursday : Maidstone Gardeners’ Society’s 
Aster and Zinnia Show. Friday and Saturday: 
Crystal Palace Annual Fruit and Grand Dahlia Show. 
The Peach Crop at Montreuil, is reported 
to have been totally destroyed by enormous hailstones, 
which fell during a storm of thunder and hail on Mon¬ 
day last, and the crops of autumn fruit in the environs 
of Paris were destroyed at the same time. It is com¬ 
puted that the glass alone which has been broken in 
the Montreuil hothouses cannot he replaced for less 
than 40,000 francs. 
An Early Frost. —A correspondent at Hampton, 
in the Thames Valley, informs us that, on the night of 
the 20th inst., the frost blackened Tomatos in the open 
ground, notably the Large Bed Italian. 
Mr. C. W. Crews, having severed his connection 
with Messrs. Yiccars Collyer & Co., Leicester, will be 
obliged if his correspondents will now address their 
letters to him at the Chad Yalley Nurseries, Edgbaston, 
Birmingham. 
