15 
Library” now in the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution. He 
had been formerly, I believe, tutor to the then Marquis of Bath, 
and was often a visitor at Longleat. This renders it probable 
that he got the copy of Mr. Stephens’s letter from Mr. Davis 
himself, who may have been a steward or agent connected with 
the management of the Longleat property. Mr. Stephens, of 
Camerton, is quite unknown to me; but he seems to have been 
a botanist whom Mr. Davis had consulted in reference to the 
' subject to which the letter relates. 
The letter, with Mr. Davis's remarks on it, has not merely a 
local interest. It is instructive, as coming from one who was well 
acquainted with what had been written by others on the diseases 
of corn up to that time; while the remarks of Mr. Davis are 
these of a clear-headed practical agriculturist, as well as a close 
observer ; and, taken both together, they enable us to judge of 
the advance made in our knowledge of wheat diseases since the 
period of their date, the last year of the last century. 
Two distinct sources of disease in wheat are spoken of by 
Mr. Stephens—one he calls “ blight,” due to fungus growth ; the 
other caused by insects, as he imagines ; though in the particular 
case of the “ shrivelled diminutive grain” shown to him by Mr. 
Davis, the latter considers this also due to blight. 
Fungi, their history, structure and mode of development, were 
comparatively little understood in those days, and the species not 
accurately distinguished. Several others are known to attack 
corn besides the one Mr. Stephens alludes to, which has been 
called by the different names of rust, mildew and blight; the 
latter word being one to which no very definite meaning can be 
attached—being often used indiscriminately for maladies in plants 
arising from very different causes. 
A good account of the rust or mildew, which in fact are the 
names of two different stages of the same species of fungus (spots 
of a rust-coloured dust being the immature form of mildew which 
appears in dark or black streaks) will be found in a pamphlet 
