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X. ObfervaUons upon certain Fungi, which are Parafitici of the Wheat. 

 By the Rev. IVilliam Kirby, F. L. S. 



Read February 5, 1799. 



DURING the time that my attention has been dire£led to thofe 

 infefts which frequent the wheat fields, I have often had 

 occafion to obferve the appearances produced in that grain by Several 

 different fpecies of Fungi (a), which derive their nourilhment from 

 it. I thought of confidering this fubjedl at large ; but as my time 

 is likely to be fully employed in other purfuits, I fee no probability of 

 doing this in the manner that I could wifli ; and therefore having 

 made fome obfervations, which, though by no means complete, may 

 not be wholly unimportant, I now beg leave to lay them before the 

 Linnean Society, trufting that they may ferve as hints to others 

 who may be inclined to enter more fully upon fo interefting a 

 fubje£t. 



I have noticed five or fix different fpecies of thefe Fungi. The 

 firft I Ihall mention is named by Dr. Withering Relicularia fegetum {b). 

 In the Rev. Henry Bryant's pamphlet upon Brand (c), it is called 



(a) That thefe appearances are produced by minute vegetables of the order of Fungi, 

 feems now to be acknowledged by thofe naturalifts who are the mod converfant wiih 

 that order. 



(b) Bot. Arr. vol. iv. p. 388. 



(c) A particular Enquiry into the Caufes of that Difeafe in the Wlieat commonly 

 called Brand, &c. Norwich 1783. 



Duji 



