THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 85 



It is probably only a matter of time before each of the 

 varieties will be shown to have its white-flowered forma. 

 Variations of this kind may always be expected and should be 

 made a matter of record ; for while such contributions are 

 separately of very slight importance, they are necessary to the 

 complete understanding of a variable species. 



THE BARBERRY AND THE WHEAT RUST 



By Willard N. Clute. 



W/ITHIN the past few months, a vigorous compaign has 

 ^^ been waged against the common barberry (Bcrbcris 

 vulgaris) on the ground that it harbors a very destructive 

 rust of cereal crops. A few States, indeed, have passed laws 

 for its extermination within their boundaries, and a large 

 number of recent graduates from our agricultural colleges have 

 found an outlet for their patriotism, an opportunity to make 

 a reputation, and more or less remuneration in endeavoring 

 to exterminate the barberry, root and branch. 



The common barberry is not an especially beautiful shrub 

 and can well be spared from our future plantings, but there 

 are a large number of parks, cemeteries and private grounds 

 whose beauty depends to some extent upon plantings of this 

 shrub made before war was declared upon it, and it behooves 

 us to look carefully into the charges against it before getting 

 hysterical over the matter and pulling them up. If such 

 plantings threaten the health of the wheat, they should, of 

 course, be exterminated forthwith; but if they do not, a reason- 

 able time should be given the owners in which to replace the 

 shrubs with something else. In any case, since the shrub 

 is a possible source of danger, it should ultimately be removed, 

 or at least reduced somewhat in numbers. 



The wheat 'rust, which the barberry is accused of har- 

 boring, belongs to a group of fungi usually known as Basidio- 



