Hetei'cecisni. 47 



the seven years of famine with which the Egyptians were 

 afflicted were caused by mildew. This, of course, does 

 not prove that the ancient Egyptians had any acquaint- 

 ance with mildew, but it does show that in early English 

 times the disease was not only known as an affection of 

 cereals, but also that it v/as regarded as an agency suffi- 

 ciently powerful to cause famine. In Shakspeare's time, 

 mildew must have existed, for we read of how " The foul 

 fiend Flibbertigibbet mildews the white wheat." * The 

 fungoid nature of the mildew was not known, however, 

 until the latter half of the last century, for Tull,t writing 

 i" 1 733) attributes it to the attack of small insects, 

 " brought (some think) by the east wind," which feed upon 

 the wheat, leaving their excreta as black spots upon the 

 straw, " as is shown by the microscope " ! Felice Fontana,| 

 some thirty years later, published an account of the fungus, 

 with figures. Persoon,§ in 1797, gave it the name it still 

 bears {Puccinia gramiiiis), and also figured it, as did 

 Sowerby | in 1799, under the name of Uredo fntmenti. 



With regard to the fact that the barberry in some way 

 favours the growth of mildew upon wheat, there is no 

 doubt that it was well known to practical farmers during 

 the eighteenth century, for we find in America, as early as 

 1760, in the state of Massachusetts, an Act was passed by 

 the legislature, compelling the inhabitants to extirpate all 

 barberry bushes.H" In New England a similar law existed, 

 which is referred to by Schopf** In our own country, 



* Shakspeare, "King Lear," act iii. sc. iv. 



t Jethro Tull, "Horse Howeing Husbandry," 3rd edit. (1751,) p. 151. 

 \ Felice Fontana, " Osservazioni sopra la Ruggine del Grano." Lucca: 

 1767. 



§ Persoon, " Tentamen Dispos. Method. Fungorum " (1797), p. 39, t. iii. 



fig- 3- 



II Sowerby, " English Fungi," vol. ii. (1799), t. 140. 



\ For "Barberry Law of Massachusetts," see p. 302. 



** J. D. Schopf, " Reise durch die mittleren und siidlichen vereinigten 

 Nordamerikanischen Staaten," theil i. p. 56. Erlangen : 178S. 



