908 THE chairman's address. 



members will do well to be on the alert in observing and 

 recording, as we have much yet to learn in these matters, and 

 the records of the past are neither so complete nor so systematic 

 as is to be desired. 



Dr. A. Barclay, of the Bengal Medical Service, early in the 

 year contributed an important paper to the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal, in which he deals with the subject of the prevalence and 

 character of Rust and Mildew on wheat in India. The number 

 of the journal containing this paper has not yet reached us, but 

 the gist of it will be found in another paper by the same author 

 in the" Journal of Botany," XXVIII, p. 257 (September 1890), 

 from which I take the following passage : — " So far as I liave 

 been able to gather, the most prevalent form of rust on wheat, 

 barley, and oats in India is Puccinia rubigo-vera, D.C., and not 

 P. graminis, Pers. And this is true even of the outer Himalayan 

 region, where rust is very prevalent, and where three species of 

 barberry are common (B. lycium, Royle ; B. aristata, D.C. ; 

 B. vulgaris, L.), one of which, B. lycium, bears an ^cidium 

 abundantly. At the same time, I have never been able to find 

 an ^cidium on any species of Boraginese in the Himalayan 

 I'egion, and none is known on the plains. Whilst P. rubigo-vera 

 is apparently by far the commonest rust in India, P. graminis 

 is not wholly unknown. I have received specimens of P. graminis 

 from Jeypore, about 200 miles in a direct line from the nearest 

 known habitat of barbeny ; but I have never seen a specimen on 

 the crops actually in the neighbourhood of fecidium-bearing 

 barberry. These facts are suificient to show the mystery in 

 which the subject here is involved, and that it needs much more 

 study before anything useful can be written on it. The fungus 

 on Linum C'XJlsee") is apparently extremely common over large 

 areas of the plains. It is often so closely concurrent with rust on 

 wheat and barley, that the uredo stage on Linum has often been 

 supposed to be the cause of the rust on wheat. This supposition, 

 however, cannot be entertained, with our present knowledge, by 

 botanists. The fungus on Linum is probably a complete 

 autoecious species." 



