346 OF THE BLIGHT AND 



or wet, or are owing to the baneful stimulus 

 of parasitical /zni^i irritating the vital prin- 

 ciple, like the young progeny of insects as 

 above related. Sir Joseph Banks has, with 

 great care and sagacity, traced the progress 

 of the Blight in Corn, Uredo frumenti, 

 Sowerh, Fung. t. 140, and given a complete 

 history of the minute fungus which causes 

 that appearance. See Annals of Botany^ 

 V. 2. 51, t. 3, 4. Under the inspection of 

 this eminent promoter of science, Mr. Francis 

 Bauer has made microscopical drawings of 

 many similar fungi infecting the herbage 

 and seeds of several plants, but has decided 

 that the black swelling of the seed of corn, 

 called by the French Ergot, though not well 

 distinguished from other appearances by the 

 generality of our agricultural writers, is indu- 

 bitably a morbid swelling of the seed, and 

 not in any way connected with the growth of 

 a fungus. The anthers of certain plants often 

 exhibit a similar disease, swelling, and pro- 

 ducing an inordinate quantity of dark pur- 

 plish powder instead of true pollen, as hap- 

 pens in Sikne infata, FL Brit. Engl. Bot. 

 if.X64, and the white Lychnis diolca, t, l5Si\ 



