324 Sir Joseph Banks 



caiisiderablc mischief was done to the wheat crop there in 

 the year 1803 by a parasitic plant, %'ery similar to the 

 English one. 



It has bcea long admitted by farmersr, though scarcely 

 credited by botanists, that wheat in the neicchbourhood of 

 a barberry bush seldom escapes the bhght. The village of 

 Kollesbv in Norlblk, where barberries abound, and wheat 

 seldom succeeds, is caUedby the opprobrious appellation of 

 Mildew Rollcsby. Some observing men have of late attri- 

 buted this very perplexing eftlct to the farina of the flowers 

 of the barberry, which is in truth yellow, and resembles in 

 some degree the appearance of the rust, or what is pre&umed 

 to be the blight in its early state. 



It is, however, notorious to all botanical observers, that 

 the leaves of the barberry are very subject to the attack of a 

 vellow parasitic fungus, larger, but otherwise nmeh resem- 

 bling the rust in corn. 



Is"it not more than possible that the parasitic fungus of 

 the barberry and that of w heat are one and the same species,, 

 iind that the seed is transferred from the barberry to the 

 corn ? ivli^letoe, the parasitic plant with which we are the 

 best acquainted-, delights most to grow on the apple and 

 liawlhoru, but it flourishes occasionally on trees widely 

 differing in their nature from botii of these: in the Home 

 Park, at Windsor, misletoe may be seen in abundance on 

 the lime trees planted there in avenues. If this conjectiire 

 is founded, another year will not pass without its being 

 confirmed by the observations of inquisitive and sagacious 

 farmer?. 



It would be presumptuous to offer any remedy for a ma- 

 lady, the progress of which is so little understood : con- 

 jectures, however, founded on the origin here assigned to 

 it, may be hazarded without offence. 



It is believed* to begin early in the spring, and first to 

 appear ou the , leaves of wheat in the form of rust, or 

 orange-coloured 4)owder ; at this season, the fungus will, 

 in all probabiUty, require as many weeks for its progress 

 from infancy to puberty as it does days during the heats 

 of autumn ; but a very few plants of wheat, thus infected, 

 arc quite s-ufHcient, if the fungus is permitted to ripen its 

 seed, to spread the malady over a fidd, or indeed over a. 

 whole parish. 



The chocolate -coloured bHght is little observed till the 



• This, though believed, is not dogmatically asserted, because Fontana, 

 the bet writer on the siibjoct, asserts that the yellow and the dark coloured 

 iJi^hl are different specie-' of fungi. 



corw 



