278 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Opt ntv  r  180ST. 
appropriate  names  are  provided,  to  stand  or  fall  according  to  the 
soundness  or  otherwise  of  the  foundation  on  which  they  rest. 
As  the  result  of  investigations  and.  examinations  of  rust-infested 
leaves,  Mr.  Abbey  has  now  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  fungus 
differs  in  some  essential  points  from  that  or  those  which  attack  certain 
hardy  British  Composites.  Whether  he  is  correct  or  not  can  only 
be  settled  by  further  researches  ;  but  this  has  to  be  said,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  that  his  conclusions  are  founded  on  actual  examinations,  and 
we  suspect  he  has  had  more  rust-infected  Chrysanthemum  leaves 
under  the  microscope  than  has  any  other  person  living.  We  have 
sent  him  hundreds  from  various  districts,  and  he  has  been  diligently 
working  at  the  subject  for  more  than  a  year. 
The  action  of  the  N.C.S.  has,  we  are  glad  to  say,  stimulated  some 
of  our  respected  contemporaries  into  activity,  and  impelled  them  to 
join  in  the  crusade  against  the  minute  but  voracious  fungus.  They 
evidently  do  not  agree  with  Mr.  Abbey  as  to  the  identity  of  the 
marauder,  though  they  do  not  differ  on  the  methods  of  combating  it 
from  those  which  he  advised  when  his  first  sketch  was  published  a 
year  ago.  Illustrations  are  given  by  two  of  our  co-workers  of  a 
fungus-infested  leaf  and  of  the  spores  of  the  parasite,  to  which  they 
ascribe  the  injury  that  has  been  wrought  in  Chrysanthemums. 
One  of  these  leaves  differs  from  any  we  have  seen,  in  the  conspicuous 
and  thinly  disposed  bold  specks  on  the  surface.  In  the  other  leaf 
they  are  more  naturally  disposed,  but  nearly  obscure,  as  is  often  the 
case.  The  highly  magnified  summer  and  winter  spores  were 
evidently  both  obtained  from  the  same  source,  though  they  are  not 
precisely  alike.  As  it  is  not  stated  that  they  were  discovered  in  a 
Chrysanthemum,  we  may  assume  they  are  representations  of  Puccinia 
Hieracii,  the  alleged  Chrysanthemum  parasite,  with  which  cultivators 
are  troubled. 
If  those  spores  have  ^actually  been  taken  from  Chrysanthemum 
leaves  that  would  set*  h  matter  against  Mr.  Abbey,  but  if  from 
Hieracium  the  question  wtlu  id  be  open  to  reasonable  doubt,  inasmuch 
as  after  examining  thousands  of  spores  in  diseased  Chrysanthemum 
leaves,  he  has  not  found  any  so  nearly  like  them  as  to  enable  him  to 
regard  them  as  Puccinia  Hieracii.  In  view  of  his  continued  investi¬ 
gations,  especially  of  recently  sent  specimens,  we  asked  him  to  prepare 
sketches  of  the  results  which  he  found,  so  to  say,  up-to-date.  He  was 
not  to  take  anything  from  books,  but  to  reproduce,  with  as  near 
approach  to  exactitude  as  he  could,  what  he  actually  found  in  the 
leaves  we  had  forwarded  to  him — that,  and  nothing  more. 
He  has  done  so,  and  we  venture  to  think  the  illustration  on 
another  page  is  the  best  that  has  yet  been  produced  on  this  per¬ 
plexing  subject.  He  informs  us  positively  that  he  has  sketched  what 
he  actually  found  in  the  Chrysanthemum,  and  that  the  figures  are 
strictly  accurate  in  every  particular.  He  has  examined  specimens 
during  every  month  in  the  year,  all  the  spores  in  the  pustules,  and 
except  in  the  very  first  pustule  opened  last  year,  has  not  detected  a 
teleuto  or  winter-resting  spore  (which  differed  from  those  above  referred 
to),  but  has  found  summer  spores  to  retain  their  vitality  over  a  very 
long  period  of  time. 
A  point  that  cannot  be  omitted  in  considering  the  question  of 
identity  of  the  Hieracium  and  Chrysanthemum  fungus  is  this, 
Hieraciums  have  been  grown  for  generations,  and  produced  countless 
myriads  of  spores,  yet  it  was  not  till  1897  that  the  general  out¬ 
break  of  the  fungus  occurred  cn  Chrysanthemums,  though  a  case 
was  reported  in  1896.  The  infection  seems  to  have  first  appeared 
in  many  widely  distant  places  in  England  at  the  same  time ;  we 
received  specimens  also  from  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Italy.  It  was  just 
previously  known  in  America,  and  the  varieties  of  Chrysanthemums 
which  first  gave  evidence  of  infestation  were  of  American  origin. 
Transatlantic  florists  have  given  us  splendid  Chrysanthemums,  and 
not  reproach  but  sympathy  should  be  extended  to  the  raisers  by  their 
plants  falling  victims  to  a  ruinous  parasitic  pest. 
Why  should  Puccinia  Hieracii  have  left  Chrysanthemums  severely 
alone  till  the  year  above  mentioned,  and  then  sprung  on  them  so 
suddenly  and  mysteriously  ?  Though  the  most  luxuriant  were 
attacked  the  more  severely,  yet  high  or  “  forcing  ”  culture  has  long 
prevailed.  Exuberant  growth  may,  and  probably  does,  favour  the 
fungus  ;  still  it  does  not  account  for  the  long  immunity  of  generously 
grown  plants  and  the  receDt  sudden  infliction,  for  millions  of  plants 
have  been  grown  on  the  present  high  cultural  linep,  and  closely 
crowded  together  during  the  past  twenty  years  and  more. 
On  turning  to  the  most  modern  work  on  cryptogamic  parasites 
within  reach,  the  splendid  volume  of  Dr.  Karl  F.  Von  Tubeuf  of 
the  University  of  Munich,  and  translated  into  English  by  Dr. 
William  G.  Smith  of  the  Edinburgh  University5,  we  find  “Puccinia 
hieracii  (Schum)  (Britain  and  U.S.  America).  Found  on  numerous 
Composite — e.g.,  Carlina,  Cirsium,  Carduus,  Centaurea,  Leontodon, 
Scorzonera,  Crepis,  Hieracium,  Cichorum,  &c.”  Chrysanthemum  is 
not  mentioned  in  this  connection,  as  we  may  reasonably  expect  it 
would  be  if  the  plant  were  such  a  favourable  “  host  ”  for  that 
particular  fungus  as  Mr.  Massee  implies. 
This  gentleman  has  worked  diligently  and  successfully  amongst 
cryptogamic  parasites,  and  his  labours  are  universally  and  deservedly 
appreciated,  but  he  has  not  told  us  that  he  has  discovered  such  teleuto 
or  winter  spores  as  he  has  figured  of  Puccinia  Hieracii  abounding  iu  the 
tissues  of  infested  Chrysanthemums — at  lea'tnot  in  his  latest  published 
articles.  Possibly  he  may  do  so  at  the  conference  (these  remarks  are 
written  in  advance  of  it),  and  if  he  does  we  should  accept  the 
information  gladly  without  detracting  from  our  appreciation,  in  which 
many  gardeners  join,  of  the  strenuous  endeavours  of  Mr.  Abbey  to 
hunt  down  and  destroy  one  of  the  smallest,  yet,  in  effect  one  of  the 
greatest  and  most  difficult  to  combat,  enemies  of  the  Chrys¬ 
anthemum. 
Our  persevering  colleague  is  a  gardener  of  fifty  years’  experience. 
Acquainted  with  the  cultivation  of  everything  grown  in  gardens,  and 
having  had  to  deal  with  various  enemies  of  plants  and  crops,  he  has 
sought  to  understnnd  them  and  discover  means  for  their  subjection. 
Though  those  enemies  do  not  affect  him  now,  he  devotes  such  of  the 
acquirements  that  he  possesses,  as  the  result  of  commendable  self- 
education,  from  the  simple  love  of  their  exercise,  and  for  the  benefit  of 
others.  We  are  afraid  he  is  inclined  to  think  that  because  he  is  “only 
a  gardener,”  and  nothing  more,  he  is  regarded  as  a  sort  of  scientific 
pretender  by  excellent  man  who  are  not  gardeners,  but  something  more. 
He  may  have  been  at  times  greatly  daring  in  his  deductions,  but  if  these 
happened  to  be  too  advanced,  he  was  at  least  honest  in  his  convictions. 
His  zeal  is  unbounded,  his  desire  to  help  where  he  can  almost  a 
consuming  passion,  yet  no  man  can  be  found  in  the  wide  domain  of 
gardening  more  modest  and  retiring  than  he.  His  work  in  this 
Chrysanthemum  rust  question  is  seen,  and  is,  of  course,  open  to 
criticism.  Whatever  this  may  be,  his  work  is  real ;  and  we  should 
like  him  to  feel  that  no  men  are  more  respected  than  genuine  gardeners, 
who  are  also  students,  by  men  who  are  learned  in  the  sciences  connected 
with  gardening. 
As  Mr.  Worthington  G.  Smith  has  well  taid  in  his  excellent  work, 
“Diseases  of  Field  and  Garden  Crops  ”  (Macmillan),  “Students  of 
Nature  should  take  little  on  trust,  for  the  sharpest  observer  is  liable 
to  make  a  mistake  in  what  he  sees  or  thinks  he  sees,  or  in  the 
meaning  he  sees  or  fancies  he  sees.  Therefore,  as  far  as  possible,  every¬ 
one  should  observe  and  think  for  himself,  not  with  the  view  of  finding 
fault  with  other  observers,  but  to  confirm,  extend,  molify  and  check 
the  observations  of  other  men.  Any  new  observers  who  will  sift  and 
resift  auy  statements  of  fact  or  deduction  which  appears  to  be 
unreasonable  will  be  doing  a  real  service  to  science.”  To  this  we 
add,  whatever  the  professions  or  vocations  of  such  men  may  be. 
We  thank  all,  including  Mr.  Abbey,  for  the  endeavours  that  have 
been  and  are  being  made  to  master  the  new  scourge  of  the  Chrys¬ 
anthemum,  of  which  we  have  teen  too  much  to  permit  us  to  apply  to 
it  any  milder  form  of  designation.  Its  danger  rests  in  its  minuteness  ; 
but  growers  need  not  be  frightened,  as  we  hope  it  has  come  to  be 
conquered  now  that  the  N.C.S.  has  taken  the  matter  in  hand. 
We  reproduce  the  first  illustration  of  the  Chrysanthemum  infesta¬ 
tion  as  interesting  for  comparison  with  the  last  up  to  date,  the  result 
of  recent  investigation. 
*  Diseases  of  Plants  Induced  by  Cryptogamic  Parasites  :  Longmans,  Green 
and  Co.,  1897. 
