Si lo 
111 : 
your own opinion as to their results. But before doing this, I may be allowed to 
say that they were commenced and conducted, as far as it is possible to do so in 
such cases, with my mind unbiassed one way or the other, either for or against the 
theory of hetercecism. For upon the one hand I had a feeling that this theory 
was, to say the least, very remarkable; while upon the other, there was the fact 
of its acceptance, almost without question, by the majority of Continental myco- 
logists, by men whose acumen is undoubted, and who justly rank in the fore-front 
of scientific botany. My mind was in a state of ‘‘ expectant attention,” but I had 
no other feeling in the matter, having never committed myself to an opinion either 
pro. OF con. 
Before detailing these experiments, there are some circumstances that have cer- 
tain weight, both for and against, which should be fairly stated, in order that a more 
just opinion may be formed than would otherwise be the case. In the first place, 
it may be thought that the connection, as different states of the same fungus, be- 
tween an deidiwm and a Puccinia is too wonderful to be true. We may readily 
enough accept the numerous other instances of polymorphism afforded by the 
fungus kingdom, and yet be unable to credit that a parasitic fungus can commence 
its life on one plant and finish it upon another, especially when the host plants are 
so far removed from one another, that the one is an exogen and the other an 
endogen. But this alternation of generation is well known to exist in other de- 
partments of the organic world, amongst organisms far higher in the animate scale 
than cryptogams. To take a well-known example afforded by the Entozoa, the 
Tenia mediocanellaia (Kiich.) commences its existence in the flesh of the Ox, as 
Cysticercus bovis, and finishes it in the alimentary canal of man; or Tenia solium 
(Linn.) which commences its existence as Cysticereus cellulose in the flesh of the pig, 
and finishes it in the same situation as the first-mentioned cestode. 
* There exists a widely spread superstition amongst agriculturists, which was 
credited far more extensively by the past generation of farmers than it is now, 
that the presence of a barberry bush was connected with the occurrence of mildew 
in wheat. So much was this the case, that in most parts of Norfolk the barberry 
(Berberis vulgaris) has, to a great extent, been exterminated. Now nothing tends 
more to render a statement incredulous to people in general, and to scientific 
minds in particular, than to brand it with the title of superstition. We dislike 
above all things to be thought superstitious, it is derogatory to our intellectual 
status. Without entering upon the question generally, of whether most super- 
stitions have not a strain, however meagre, of truth underlying them, this senti- 
ment has not been without considerable influence in rendering us chary of accepting 
the hetercecism of Puccinia graminis. It must, however, be borne in mind, that 
the connection of barberry bushes with mildewed wheat, presumably arose as a 
matter of observation on the part of our forefathers, when they suffered from the 
pest. 
Leaving these subsidiary considerations, and for the moment discarding the 
element of hetercecism, let us consider whether there be any impossibility in the 
Aicidia generally being the earlier states of certain Puccinie. It is presumed that 
