[B] _Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1886_ (_Rev. Bib._, p. 128). La cancrena del Cavolo Fiore (_La gangrene humide du Chou-fleur_) par M. le Professor O. Comes (_Atti del R. Instituto del incorraggiamento alle Scienzie naturali._--Estratta dal Vol. IV, 3a serie, degli Atti Academici, 1885). [The Humid Gangrene of the Cauliflower.]
"A disease which attacks the crops of cauliflower around Resina and at Torre del Greco, near Naples. The roots of the diseased plants remain sound, or at least appear so, but the subterranean parts of the stem are more or less seriously affected; the bark is disorganized, the wood situated beneath it more or less decomposed, and the pith destroyed for a variable length. Upon microscopic examination the vessels are found filled with gum. M. Comes recognizes in this disease all the symptoms of the affection which has been designated under the name humid gangrene. He thinks that it is the same disease which, by German authors, is attributed to the parasitism of _Pleospora Napi_, Fuckel, or to its conidiferous form, _sporidesmium excitosum_, Kuehn. But he considers the presence of these parasites as an accessory phenomenon, as well as that of _Cladosporium_ and _Macrosporium Brassicæ_. In his opinion the true cause of the alteration of the cauliflower is the humid gangrene, that is to say, a gummy degeneration and putrid fermentation of the tissues, caused by the abundance of manure in the soil and the excess of water in the plant at a time when it is subject to sudden changes of temperature.
"This disease is not confined to cauliflowers; it is common in all garden vegetables, and is of the same nature as that which attacks tomatoes and which was described by this author in the same journal in 1884." [This disease is also mentioned by Victor Paquet, in his "Plantes Potagers" (London, 1846, p. 243), where it is attributed to stagnant moisture].
[C] _Country Gentleman_, 1889, p. 769, (from the _Port Jefferson Times_, Sept. 27):
"Close upon the heels of a partial failure of the potato crop through rotting comes the news from various points on Eastern Long Island that the cauliflower crop has almost totally failed through the same cause. In Manorville the crop has not sufficiently developed in some of the fields to warrant picking, and in Mattituck and east of that place the rotting will result in an almost total loss. In a few cases there is not yet any indication of rot, but the farmers are afraid to tie the plants up lest rotting ensue.