April  26, 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Basal  Roi  in  Narcissi. 
The  present  moment,  when  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Daffodils  will  be  in  bloom,  cannot  be  other  than  opportune  for  putting 
forth  the  exhaustive  paper  by  Mr.  Wm.  Crawford,  M.D.,  Uddingston, 
N.B.,  which  was  read  at  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens.  We  extract  this 
from  the  quarterly  record  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Society  of  London, 
and  commend  it  to  the  particular  notice  of  our  readers  as  containing 
valuable  information  relative  to  the  disease,  and  also  embodying 
suggestions  for  its  prevention. 
Of  all  the  difficulties  surrounding  the  growing  of  Narcissi,  either  on 
.a  large  scale  for  commercial  purposes,  or  on  a  smaller  scale  for  pleasure, 
none  are  so  disappointing  as  that  insidious  decay  which  the  Rev.  Wolley 
Dod  was  the  first  to  describe  and  call  by  the  name  of  “  basal  rot.”  The 
whole  question  of  successful  culture  is  bound  up  in  this  term,  and  while 
an  occasional  bulb  may  go  down  through  the  ravages  of  the  Narcissus 
grub,  whole  plots  of  certain  varieties  may  be  swept  away  in  two  seasons 
by  decay. 
As  a  boy  I  was  struck  with  the  impossibility  of  growing  the  wild 
“scoticus”of  our  glens  ini  the  cultivated  flower  border,  and,  in  more 
recent  years,  when  I  began  to  form  a  collection,  I  was  met  by  the  same 
difficulty  in  very  many  varieties.  My  first  collection,  over  ten  years 
ago,  was  planted  under  the  same  cultural  conditions  with  very  unsatis¬ 
factory  results,  and  I  was  at  once  convinced  that  the  varieties  of 
Narcissus  springing  from  such  varied  conditions  of  cross- fertilisation 
and  in-breeding  required  very  dissimilar  treatment,  for  while  single 
and  double  poeticus  Van  Sion  and  many  of  the  bicolors  (planted  in 
porous  soils)  revel  in  heavy  mulchings  of  farmyard  manure ;  the 
spurious  class  and  white  trumpet  section  sicken  and  die  in  two  years 
in  the  same  soil,  under  what  would  be  styled  for  any  other  plant  very 
xsareful  treatment. 
Nature’s  Rules. 
Now  Nature,  though  slow,  is  a  sure  and  safe  guide,  and  it  will  be 
■well  to  turn  for  a  moment  to  her  and  learn  how  she  deals  with  the 
Narcissus.  Our  native  Lent  Lily,  which  has  a  wide  distribution  over 
the  whole  of  the  western  counties  of  Scotland,  is  found  in  its  greatest 
luxuriance  in  sloping  woods  and  glens  where  the  soil  has  been  un¬ 
disturbed  by  the  hand  of  man.  If  this  plant  is  put  into  cultivated  soil 
it  goes  down  immediately.  Reasoning  from  these  data  we  may  arrive 
at  the  conditions  necessary  to  healthy  culture  and  the  conditions  leading 
to  disease.  In  the  uncultivated  soil  “  scoticus  ”  received  the  plant 
food  which  ministered  to  its  perfect  development;  in  the  cultivated  soil 
it  met  with  something  over  which  it  sickened  and  died.  It  is  our 
purpose  to  find  out  what  that  something  is,  and  the  correct  rendering  of 
it  will  be  a  solution  of  the  “  basal  rot  ”  question. 
All  plant  food  resolves  itself  into  four  elements  :  Nitrogen, 
phosphoric  acid,  potash,  and  lime  ;  these  four  are  essential  to  all 
perfect  plant  formation.  Yet  we  find  whole  families  of  plants  that 
have  a  special  preference  for  one  element  more  than  another — the 
Grasses  delighting  in  nitrogen,  the  Brassica  family  in  phosphoric  acid, 
the  Leguminosas  in  potash  ;  and  all  successful  manuring  is  compre¬ 
hended  in  supplying  the  special  wants  of  the  plant.  In  the  vegetable, 
as  in  the  animal  kingdom,  what  is  one’s  food  is  another’s  poison,  and 
this  is  particularly  so  of  the  Narcissus.  The  Narcissus  is  a  phosphate 
and  potash. loving  plant  ;  evidently  the  slightest  quantity  of  free 
nitrogen  or  ammnniacal  compounds  is  poisonous  to  it.  In  uncultivated 
soil,  Nature  has  formed  her  plan,  that  there  is  no  excess  of  nitrogenous 
compounds  from  decaying  manure,  and  the  potash  and  phosphatic 
elements  have  not  been  eaten  out  of  it  by  continuous  cropping ;  but 
the  very  reverse  occurs  in  the  cultivated  border,  where  there  is  an 
excess  of  ammoniaoal  compounds  with  generally  a  deficiency  of  potash 
and  phosphates.  The  balance  of  manorial  ingredients  is  reversed,  and 
the  bulb  falls  a  victim  to  those  changes  (caused  by  microbic  action), 
which  are  going  on  in  cultivated  soils. 
The  Physical  Signs  of  Basal  Rot. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  detain  you  with  a  description  of  the 
outward  or  physical  signs  of  “  basal  rot.”  There  are  just  two  to  which 
I  would  draw  particular  attention,  as  the  one  is  a  guide  to  a  choice  of 
bulbs  while  buying,  and  the  other  the  first  indication  that  something  is 
wrong  with  the  stock.  The  first  sign  is  that  of  the  brown  thumb-like 
markings  on  bulbs  that  are  just  affected  ;  these  markings  may  be  very 
slight  or  run  into  a  burnt  and  scrubby  appearance  of  the  whole  outer 
tunic  of  the  bulb.  Avoid  such  bulbs  however  little  they  are  marked, 
as  they  are  already  infested  with  the  microbe  “  Penicilium.”  The 
second  sign  is  the  stunting  and  clubbing  of  the  foliage,  with  the  ends  of 
the  leaves  withered.  The  vascular  bundles  of  what  we  might  call  the 
inner  or  feathered  side  of  the  leaf  atrophy,  while  the  vascular  bundles 
of  the  outer  side  continuing  to  grow,  cause  a  clubbing  of  the  leaf. 
This  is  a  sure  sign  that  the  stock  is  affected.  The  foliage  of  such 
bulbs  will  die  down  a  considerable  time  before  the  foliage  of  healthy 
bulbs.  All  such  bulbs  should  be  lifted  whenever  the  foliage  dies  down, 
and  be  well  dried  during  the  summer. 
The  microscopic  examination  of  the  bulb  demands  our  earnest 
attention,  because,  if  my  contention  is  correct,  we  .shall  find  in  it  the 
:’,47 
true  secret  of  “  basal  rot.”  I  have  been  fortunate  in  having  the  aid 
of  an  expert  microscopist  in  determining  in  every  instance  that  the 
microbe  “Penicilium”  was  the  active  injurious  agent  in  all  bulbs 
affected  with  basal  rot.  I  need  not  go  further  into  the  methods  of 
examination  than  to  say  that  seemingly  healthy  portions  of  diseased 
bulbs  cultivated  in  Koch’s  jelly  always  revealed  this  organism. 
I  am  quite  sensible  that  I  shall  be  met  with  the  reminder  that  this 
“  Penicilium  ”  is  nothing  more  than  the  mould  or  fungus  which  affects 
all  vegetable  substances  in  the  processes  of  decay — that  it  is  in  no 
sense  specific  to  the  bulb  as  the  Potato  fungus  is  specific  in  causing 
the  Potato  disease.  My  answer  is,  that  it  is  quite  possible  that  this 
“Penicilium”  is  specific  in  the  sense  that  it  has  more  affinity  for 
bulbous  structures  than  it  has  for  ordinary  decaying  vegetable  products, 
and  that  when  bulbs  are  plapted  in  such  soils  they  immediately  begin 
to  suffer.  All  cultivated  soils  are  teeming  with  this  microbe,  especially 
near  the  surface,  but  the  organisms  become  fewer  deeper  down,  until  a 
depth  is  reached  beyond  the  ordinary  cultivated  area  where  they  are 
absent.  Wherever  one  has  decaying  manure  or  vegetable  products 
giving  rise  to  ammoniacal  compounds,  one  has  “  Penicilium.”  in  such 
soils  bulbs,  especially  of  the  spurious  class  or  white  section — what  we 
might  call  inbred  bulbs  with  delicate  constitutions — will  fall  a  prey  to 
this  germ  or  fungus.  I  look  upon  the  species  of  Acarus  or  mites, 
which  some  observers  have  described,  as  scavengers,  eating  up  and 
clearing  away  the  already  all  but  dead  bulbs. 
If  my  reasoning  is  not  correct,  how  otherwise  is  it  that  Narcissus 
“  scoticus,”  one  of  the  hardiest  plants  in  its  native  habitat,  fails 
immediately  it  is  placed  in  cultivated  soil  It  is  not  that  it  is  starved 
in  the  rich  border — it  is  that  it  is  poisoned  with  ammoniacal  compounds 
and  infested  with  the  fungus  “  Penicilium.” 
Experiments  in  the  Prevention  of  the  Disease. 
At  first,  as  a  safety,  I  tried  various  expedients  to  ward  off  the 
Penicilium  ” — surrounding  my  bulbs  with  rough  sand,  soil  from  banks 
of  rivers,  and  road  grit — with  partial  success.  Some  have  used  burnt 
clay,  which  is  simply  soil  sterilissd  and  freed  from  the  “  Penicilium. 
I  look  upon  all  these  as  antiseptic  screens.  But  sooner  or  later  the 
Penicilium  will  pass  through  these,  or  perhaps,  entering  the  bulbs 
through  attacking  the  roots,  will  destroy  them. 
The  conclusion  I  have  come  to  is  that  with  deep  planting  where 
“  Penicilium”  may  be  either  few  or  absent;  with  antiseptic  screens  of 
various  kinds  and  yearly  lifting  one  may  get  on  fairly  well  in  cultivated 
soils;  but  to  be  really  successful  one  must  go  back  to  Nature’s  plan, 
and  use  soils  that  have  long  lain  undisturbed — that  are  free  from 
decomposing  vegetable  or  manurial  ingredients,  and  consequently  free 
from  “  Penicilium.”  In  such  soils,  with  a  dressing  of  phosphatic  slag- 
meal  at  planting  and  a  dusting  of  potash  over  the  beds  about  the  end 
of  January,  ample  success  will  follow.  And  to  make  surety  doubly 
sure,  sow  the  beds  with  fine  lawn  grass  seed,  and  there  will  be  little  to 
fear.  The  grass,  with  its  strong  affinity  for  nitrogenous  compounds, 
will  speedily  clear  the  ground  of  these,  and  leave  nothing  for  the 
fungus  “  penicilium  ”  to  make  a  nidus  of.  This  is  the  reason  why 
Daffodils  do  so  well  in  grass. 
My  own  plan  is  to  plant  in  an  old  grass  field,  turning  the  turf  well 
down.  After  opening  the  trench,  I  gave  a  good  dusting  of  slag- 
phosphate  into  the  bottom  of  the  trench.  Next  I  put  in  a  layer  of 
marl.  This  is  a  pure  carbonate  of  lime  found  extensively  on  the  sea 
shore  in  the  neighbourhood.  Into  this  marl  I  plant  my  bulbs  and  give 
them  more  on  the  top,  until,  I  may  say,  they  are  completely  surrounded 
with  an  agent  in  which  no  germs  can  possibly  be  present.  As  anyone 
who  has  used  potash  in  growing  bush  fruit,  and  knows  its  value,  it  is 
wise  to  dust  the  beds  through  the  winter  with  a  sprinkling  of  the 
sulphate  of  potash  or  with  kainit,  to  give  abundance  of  flowers  of  a 
fine  colour  and  texture.  For  those  who  work  on  a  smaller  scale  and 
cannot  get  old  lea  land  to  turn  down,  the  proper  plan  is  to  sow  down  the 
bed  with  grass  seed  the  first  season  and  plant  the  bulbs  in  the  grass  the 
next.  By  this  time  the  land  will  be  becoming  free  of  the  nitrogenous 
compounds  which  give  rise  to  and  perpetuate  the  “  penicilium  ;  ”  in 
other  words,  the  grass  will  have  eaten  them  out  for  its  own  nourishment, 
and  the  land  will  be  what  is  called  mellow  or  sweet. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Dutch  growers  largely  save  their  stocks 
by  yearly  lifting  and  drying  ;  but  they  also  complain  that  they  have 
a  great  difficulty  of  growing  many  varieties  in  their  highly  cultivated 
soils,  though  they  are  wise  enough  to  manure  the  previous  crop  before 
planting  Narcissus.  They  take  a  crop  of  Potatoes  or  other  produce 
off  the  ground,  which  removes  the  greater  part  of  the  ammoniacal 
compounds  and  leaves  the  soil  freer  of  nitrogen.  But  even  with  this 
treatment,  many  Dutch  stocks  are  affected  when  they  arrive  in  this 
country ;  and  sometimes  one  is  apt  to  blame  one’s  own  soil  when  the 
disease  was  already  present  in  the  bulb  at  planting.  I  look  on  the 
Dutch  system  of  growing  as  a  rushing  of  the  bulb  through  its  active 
state  of  growth.  By  planting  in  the  autumn,  when  the  vital  action  of 
the  bulb  starts,  and  lifting  in  the  early  summer,  when  it  ceases,  the 
very  vitality  of  the  bulb  wards  off  the  disease.  Were  the  Dutchmen 
to  allow  their  bulbs  to  lie  in  their  heavily  manured  ground  all  the 
summer  through,  the  results,  I  fear,  would  be  disastrous,  for  the 
“Penicilium”  is  much  more  active  in  warm  than  in  cold  weather. 
The  serious  losses  that  I  had  at  first  occurred  during  the  summer,  when 
the  bulbs  were  allowed  to  lie  for  increase. 
