Abstract
THERE can be no doubt, as pointed out by Fritz Müller in your last issue (p. 240), that the habits of insects often indicate affinities in plants. There is doubtless a strong affinity between the Solanaceæ and Scrophularineæ; the small oval pollen is almost identical in both. The habits of fungus parasites sometimes disclose similar relationships, often more real than is at first apparent; we have an example of this in the fungus of the potato disease, Peronospora infestans. This parasite is almost peculiar to the Solanaceæ, being especially destructive to Solanum, Lycopersicum, and Petunia, but at times it invades the Scrophularineæ and grows on Anthocersis and Schizanthus. It is not common to find one parasitic fungus attacking the members of two natural orders of plants, but other examples could be given.
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S., W. Butterflies as Botanists. Nature 30, 269 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/030269b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/030269b0
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