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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
May  1,  1902; 
diseased  part,  and  the  plant,  thus  deprived  of  the  whole  or 
a  part  of  its  root  system,  at  first  droops  in  the  sun,  or  a 
drying  wind,  and  soon  dies  altogether,  the  root  up  to  the 
base  of  the  stem  going  completely  rotten.  While  this  is 
happening,  the  parasite,  finding  its  food  supply  gone,  splits 
up  into  tiny  granules,  consisting  of  a  portion  of  protoplasm 
contained  in  a  comparatively  strong  cell-wall.  These  are 
spores,  which  may  remain  in  a  dormant  state  for  a  consider¬ 
able  time,  the  subsequent  digging  of  the  ground  serving  to 
disperse  them  in  the  soil.  When  the  spore  commences 
growing,  the  spore  case  bursts,  and  a  motile  spore  escapes 
from  it,  which  is  capable  of  a  limited  amount  of  moving 
about  in  the  soil.  If  it  does  not  come  across  the  roots  of 
some  living  cruciferous  plant — Cabbage,  Turnip,  Brussels 
Sprout,  &c. — it  dies  ;  but  if  it  does  come  across  the  healthy 
roots  of  a  suitable  host  it  enters  the  tissues  and  causes  the 
root  to  club. 
Such  is  the  life  history  of  finger-and-toe,  and  it  will  be 
readily  perceived  that  it  is  a  most  insidious  enemy  to  deal 
with.  Its  attacks  are  confined  to  -members  of  the  great 
natural  order  of  the  Cruciferse,  and,  as  far  as  we  are  here  con¬ 
cerned,  with  the  Brassica  family  of  that  order — all  Greens 
and  Turnips.  Galling  is  not  confined  to  that  order,  though 
very  partial  to  it,  and  in  this  we  have  a  tangible  and  visible 
adversary,  and  by  changing  the  position  of  the  cruciferous 
crop  in  the  garden,  and  never  leaving  the  stems  to  decay  in 
the  ground,  we  can  gradually  get  rid  of  it,  though  we  must 
take  care  in  buying  plants  that  we  do  not  import  it  from 
other  people’s  ground.  But  in  the  case  of  clubbing  we  have 
an  enemy  to  deal  with,  the  individual  members  of  which  are 
invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  and  not  only  that,  but  which, 
when  food  fails,  can  go  into  the  spore  state  and  live  for  a 
year  or  two  till  another  batch  of  its  hosts  occupy  the  same 
ground  again.  Not  only  is  it  such  a  formidable  enemy  to 
extirpate,  but  the  means  of  introducing  it  are  so  common 
and  easy.  When  plants  are  bought  it  needs  a  very  careful 
scrutiny  indeed  to  detect  its  presence  in  its  early  stages. 
The  purchase  of  manure,  too,  is  a  frequent  source  of 
infection,  pieces  of  diseased  root — Cabbage,  Kohl  Kabi,  or 
Turnip — being  thrown  upon  the  manure  heap,  where  the 
spores  do  not  die,  but  find  a  resting  place  in  any  ground  to 
which  the  manure  is  eventually  applied. 
The  above  account  of  the  disease  is  sufficient  to  impress 
upon  anyone  the  difficulty  of  dealing  with  it.  Different 
people  prescribe  different  remedies,  none  of  them  imme¬ 
diately  or  entirely  successful,  and  all  it  is  proposed  to  do 
here  is  to  give  a  few  hints  as  to  prevention  and  alleviation. 
The  common  plan  of  leaving  diseased  plants  to  die  upon  the 
soil  and  be  dug  in  is  a  most  pernicious  one.  Even  if  the 
roots  are  pulled  up  when  the  ground  is  cleared,  bj^  which 
time  the  diseased  roots  will  be  fairly  rotten,  it  is  too  late 
to  avoid  the  spread  of  the  infection  in  the  soil,  as  most  of 
the  rotten  part  of  the  root,  the  part  literally  filled  w-ith 
slime  fungus  spores,  will  be  left  in  the  ground.  The  heroic 
method  of  preventing  the  spread  of  infection  is  to  pull  up 
the  whole  of  a  crop  carefully  as  soon  as  it  is  seen  to  be 
diseased,  and  utterly  destroy  the  roots.  Few  care  to  do  this, 
and  the  next  best  course  to  adopt  is  to  pull  up  any  plant 
of  the  Cabbage  family  which  is  seen  to  droop  badly  on  a 
sunny  day  when  the  main  part  of  the  crop  remains  fresh,  as 
well  as  all  stumps  when  they  are  done  with.  This  would 
help  to  rid  the  ground  of  galling  as  well,  and  to  a  much 
greater  degree  than  the  slime  fungus,  as  its  scale  of  repro¬ 
duction  is  much  more  limited,  as  also  its  vitality.  This 
practice  is  rather  a  palliative  than  a  remedy  as  regards  club¬ 
bing,  though  in  course  of  years  it  would  become  a  remedy 
if  persevered  in.  Another  remedy  which,  though  it  takes  a 
long  time  to  accomplish,  is  pretty  effective  is  to  keep  the 
ground  free  from  all  cruciferous  plants  for  four  or  five  years, 
thus  depriving  the  parasite  of  its  hosts.  It  should  be  kated 
here  that  certain  cruciferous  weeds  are  just  as  welcome  hosts 
to  this  fungus  as  the  Cabbage  family,  which,  as  stated 
above,  belongs  to  the  same  order. 
It  is  generally  admitted  that  chalky  soils  are  the  least 
liable  to  infection,  and  it  seems  that  the  spores  do  not 
develop  unless  there  is  some  aciditv  in  the  soil.  This  latter 
may  ipartly  account  for  the  fact  that  the  best  thing  to  do 
to  an  infected  soil  is  to  apply  quicklime  in  a  finely  powdered 
state,  and  to  get  the  soil  thoroughly  impregnated  with  it. 
This  latter  condition  is  difficult  to  bring  about,  the  best 
method  being  the  application  of  a  small  dressing  every  time- 
the  soil  is  turned  over,  so  that  in  a  couple  of  years  or  so  the- 
lime  would  have  come  in  contact  with  every  particle  of  soil. 
Whether  this  cures  the  pest  by  preventing  that  acidity  of 
the  soil  which  seems  to  be  necessary  for  the  development 
of  the  spores,  or  whether  contact  with  the  lime  itself  is 
fatal  to  them,  cannot  be  stated  ;  but  the  experiments  of  men 
like  Professor  Somerville,  and  others  who  have  studied  the 
question,  all  agree  in  showing  that  this  is  the  best  remedy 
to  adopt,  though  the  getting  of  the  antiseptic  in  contact  with- 
.each  spore  must,  of  course,  take  some  amount  of  time. 
Some  of  the  readers  of  this  article  may  never  have  heard 
of  clubbing,  or  even  of  galling,  though  most  must  have  seen 
the  results  of  galling,  even  if  they  have  never  heard  it 
described  by  name.  Those  who  have  never  come  across  the 
clubbing  disease  are  lucky,  for  if  they  lived  in  Essex  it  is 
almost  certain  that  they  would  have  some  trace  of  it  in  their 
soil.  A  high  authority  states  that  there  is  no  natural  agency 
which  interferes  so  disastrously  with  profitable  rotation, 
cropping  in  market-gardening  as  clubbing. — A.  Petts. 
Grey-edged  and  Other  Auriculas. 
Unlike  the  golcl-laced  Polyanthus,  the  Auriculas,  both  the- 
Alijine  and  Show  varieties,  are  rising  into  wider  popularity.  Of 
course,  the  Alpine  Auriculas  are  to  be  found  in  some  corner  of 
every  garden,  even  if  special  attention  i.s  not  laboured  upon  them  ; 
but  from  their  verj”^  preciousness,  their  constitution,  and  com¬ 
plexity  of  quiet  colour-beauty,  the  Show  Auriculas  demand  care¬ 
ful  pot  culture.  They  are  worth  it,  too.  But  just  because  of 
this,  and  the  fact  that  people  cannot  “  cut  and  come  again,”  they 
will  for  ever  remain  in  comparative  obscurity  except  in  the  hands 
of  a  few  enthusiasts.  Our  illustration  on  page  391  shows  a  perfect 
(if  Ihere  is  a  perfect)  type.  Mr.  John  Forbes,  of  Hawick,  Scot¬ 
land,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Scottish  Horticultural  Associa¬ 
tion,  at  Edinburgh,  on  May  7,  1901,  says  of  Auriculas  in  general : 
“  The  Auricula  consists  of  many  varieties,  which  are  still  increas¬ 
ing.  They  are  divided  into  five  classes,  green-edged,  grey-edged, 
white-edged,  seifs,  and  Alpines,  and  their  properties  considered 
from  two  points  of  view,  viz.  : — those  of  the  single  pip,  and  those 
of  the  single  plant.  The  pip  should  be  round,  large,  smooth  at 
the  edges,  without  notch  or  serrature,  and  perfectly  flat.  The 
centre  or  tube  should  not  exceed  one-fourth  of  the  diameter  of 
the  pip ;  it  should  be  of  a  fine  yellow  or  lemon  colour,  perfectly 
round,  well  filled  with  the  anthers  or  thrum,  and  the  edge  rise  a- 
trifle  above  the  pa.ste  or  eye.  Ihe  paste  or  eye  should  be  per¬ 
fectly  round,  smooth,  and  white,  without  crack  or  blemish,  and 
form  a  band  or  circle  not  less  than  half  the  width  of  the  tube  all 
round  it.  The  gtound  colour  should  be  dense,  whole,  and  form  a 
perfect  circle  next  the  eye,  and  on  the  outer  part  be  finely  broken 
into  a  feathery  edge;  the  brighter,  darker,  or  richer  the  colour, 
whichever  it  may  be,  the  better  the  flower,  but  if  it  be  paler  at 
the  edges  of  the  petals  (where  they  are  parted  into  five)  or  have 
two  colours  or  shades,  it  is  a  fatal  defect.  Tlie  margin  or  outer 
edge  should  be  a  fine  unchangeable  green  or  grey,  and  be  about 
the  same  width  as  the  ground  colour,  which  must  in  no  part  ga 
through  the  edge.  From  the  edge  of  the  paste  to  the  outer  edge 
of  the  flower  should  be  as  wide  as  from  the  centre  of  the  tube  to 
the  outer  edge  of  the  paste.  In  other  words,  the  proportions  of 
the  flower  niay  be  described  by  drawing  four  circles  round  given 
points  at  equal  distances,  the  first  circle  forming  the  tube;  the 
second,  the  white  eye  ;  the  third,  the  ground  colour ;  and  the 
fourth  the  outer  edge  of  the  flower  ;  and  the  nearer  they  approxi¬ 
mate  to  this  (except  that  the  ground  colour,  and  the  green  or  grey 
edge,  I’un  into  each  other  in  feathery  points)  the  better  the- 
flower.  So  much  for  the  nroperties  of  the  pip,  we  shall  now  con¬ 
sider  the  properties  of  the  plant.  The  stem  should  be  strong, 
round,  upright,  and  elastic,  supporting  itself  well,  and  from  4in 
to  Tin  high.  The  footstalks  of  the  pip  or  flowers  should  be  so 
proportioned  as  to  length  and  strength  that  all  the  pips  or 
flowers  may  have  room  to  show  themselves,  and  to  form  a  close, 
compact  truss  of  flowers,  not  less  than  seven  in  number,  without 
lapping  over  each  other,  and  all  alike  in  colour,  size,  and  pro¬ 
perty.  The  truss  is  improved  jf  one  or  more  leaves  grow  and 
stand  well  up  behind  the  bloom;  it  assists  the  truss,  and  adds 
much  to  the  beauty  of  the  flowers  by  forming  a  green  background. 
The  foliage  should  be  healthy,  well  grown,  and  almost  cover  the 
pot,  when  exhibited  in  pairs.  The  pair  should  be  of  equal  height 
and  size,  both  in  truss  and  foliage,  and  the  colours  of  the  flowers 
should  be  as  much  contrasted  as  possible  :  a  green  edge  and  a  grey 
one,  a  dark  ground  and  a  bright  one,  a  dark  green  edge  and  a 
light  green  edge,  or  any  other  contrast  in  the  colouring,  would  be- 
a  point  over  equally  good  flowers  not  so  contrasted.” 
