BOTANY 



character of the wheat-mildew fungus {Puccinia graminis) was noticed in 

 Norfolk by Marshall in the year 1781, not so much as regards the 

 fungus, perhaps, as with respect to the disease. In the following year ^ 

 Marshall put the matter to experimental test by planting a barberry bush 

 in the middle of a corn-field and demonstrated to his own and his friends' 

 satisfaction that the mildew was produced thereby. 



Of the fungi causing plant diseases we have had many imported ; 

 the dreaded larch disease {Peziza Wilkommn) for instance is rife in some 

 of our young plantations where the trees have been imported from 

 Scotland. The uredo on the cultivated chrysanthemum was introduced 

 into the county in 1898, and still flourishes. Cronartium ribicolum, Dietr., 

 thrives in gardens where the imported Weymouth pines have their branches 

 distorted by the Peridermium. 



In conclusion, one remark on our sea-shore fungi. There are 

 certain fungi which do not seem to be in the least injured by salt 

 water : Poronia punctata I have only found in the county on horse-dung 

 which has been washed up at ' high-water mark.' Ascobolus violaceus 

 grows in profusion on cow-dung below high-water mark, while certain 

 Uredince habitually occur on plants washed by the sea, e.g. Puccinia asteris 

 on Aster tripolium and Uromyces limonii on Statice limonium. 



Detailed lists of Norfolk fungi will be found in the Transactions of 

 the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, vol. i. October 29th, 1872 ; 

 vol. iii. March, 1884, p. 730 ; vol. iv. March, 1889, p. 728. 



^ Marshall, Rural Economy of Norfolk, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 19 (London, 1795). 



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