"J. G. H." New York, writes: "I would like to have you inform me through the MoNTHLy what kind of a disease it is that has got into the roots of my plants. The rest of the roots are the same as the piece I send you. Will you please inform me how I can prevent it? I am losing all my plants with this disease. And can you tell me what kind of disease this is that has got into my roses? The leaves at first have from one to four black spots on them, then they turn yellow and drop off; the roots seem to be all healthy enough. You can see by the leaves I send you how they look. Will you please tell me how I can prevent this disease from going any farther. It started first in the La France and is going through the whole house".

[The roses are infested by a root aphis, and also by the larvae of some small insect which bore into and make their home in the roots in much the same manner as their larger fellow creatures do in the stems of apples and quinces. After they have become so abundant as they evidently are on these, we know of no remedy but to take out the whole lot, have entirely new earth, and begin anew, and it should be an especial care that the new plants should be wholly free from the insect. Their presence can be readily detected by a strong pocket lens, which should be always present in a gardener's pocket, as well as a pocket knife or a pencil. The presence of the insect can then be readily detected on the main roots by a granular smutty surface which is really the excrement of the minute insect, or the decaying tissue caused by the insect work - or there may be small galls, too minute to be seen by the naked eye on the annual fibres. It is the great fault of cultivators, that the roots of their plants are seldom examined; indeed the majority of plant cultivators are wholly ignorant of roots, their nature and requirements. The discolored leaves come from a fungus which works beneath the surface of the leaves, and cannot be reached by any external application.

In our opinion it is not one of those which attack healthy vegetation, but only those, the vitality of which have been already somewhat impaired. Quite likely the leaves are from the plants which have been already weakened by the root fungus above alluded to. - Ed. G. M.J