23G 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[\o. 4 



an egi^-sliaped fler^hy mas« below the parts of 

 ti-uctificutioii, vvhicli appeared to lie nuihiii£f but 

 the Iboi-sialk fiiippuriiiiif the grain, increased to 

 a monstrous size hy the disease. On the snniniit 

 of this fleshy egiJ--.shaped looisialk, were si'en the 

 three stamens, with exceed inu:ly short hlaaienis 

 and anthers, of the usual f()rm, hut destitute of 

 pollen. Tlie seed origan (^ovariuui), however, was 

 so much shrunk, as only to be traced in the form 

 ol" two scale-like sub:{tances, and a minute ovoid 

 tubercle deprived of stisi;niata. 



From these apparently exact and very minute 

 observaiions, it tollows tiiat, instead of bein<>- de- 

 veloped, as usually supposed, in the seed organ 

 and the parts surroun(ling it, as is the case in 

 canker or pepjier brand, smut produces a sort of 

 atrophy, shrinking, or abortion, of all thi; flora! or- 

 gans, developmg itself in the lootstalk or peduncle, 

 which it swells out to an excessive magnitude, 

 and transforms it into a mass, first fleshy, and af- 

 terwards of a powdery consistence. 



It will be evident, li-om these details, that M. 

 Adolphe Brongniart is altogether original in his 

 observations, whioh do not correspond in any part 

 with the researches of previous observers, and is 

 directly contradictory to tlie equally minute re- 

 searches of Mr. Bauer, who figures the smut as 

 infecting every part of the plant, — the joints, the 

 stem, the leaves, the foot-stalk, the chatt', and all 

 the parts of the flower and the fructification, — 

 Greville also describes it as infecting "the fruit 

 and glumes of corn and various grasses, spread- 

 ing, and in a short time fiilinir the whole with a 

 profuse black dust." ( Flora Edlneiisis, p, 442-3. ) 

 Lamarck also says '-it springs up under the epiiler- 

 mis, destroying sometimes the whole of the pulp 

 (parenchyme) of a spikelet, sometiiTies of an entire 

 spike." {End. Method. But. viii. 228.) In de- 

 scribing the attacks of srimt upon maize, [Indian 

 corn,] M. Decandolle says, *' it pufls up the epi- 

 (Jerrnis of the grains so as to change their firm, 

 and cause them to attain the size of'a plum ; and 

 it destroys the mealy substance, imparting to the 

 epidermis filled with black dust no bad resem- 

 blance of a puff-ball (Lijcoperdnu ).'''' (Synnps. 

 Plant. Gall, No. 615, p. 47.) Willdenow like- 

 wise says it "occupies the whole ear, which, 

 therefore, cannot form itself properly, every part of 

 it becoming a black, soiling mass." ( Gr'iindriss. 

 Botanisch. 331.) "Its attacks," says Burnet, 

 fare not confined to the grain, but it equally af- 

 fects the husks, leaves, and culms," ( Outlines nf 

 Bottany, i. 186) ; and he makes this statement 

 with Brongniart's figures before him. 



2. Canker, 



What is termed canker, pepper brand, smut- 

 ball, and brand bladders, in England, and le carie, 

 cloque, chambauale, ^c. by the French, raeanincr 

 by these terms "cankered, mortified, or putrid 

 grain," occurs solely among wheat, and does not 

 seem to have been observed infecting other grain. 

 It is very distinct from snmt, as we shall show, 

 though often confounded therewith. 



The Abbe Tessier says it is only the well ex- 

 perienced eye that can detect a cankered ear of 

 wheat before it issues from the sheath or hose, 

 when the stems and leaves are slender, and of a 

 duller green than those of healthy plants. On 

 opening a sheath containing a cankered ear, and 



spreading the grains, there is seen a small body, 

 of' a green color, apparently the embryo grain 

 bulged out, and bearing on its summit the two 

 stigmata without any ftjalheriofr, and farther down 

 the three anthers, lax and wiihout pollen. If 

 this small body be pressed between the finirer 

 and thumb, it emits an unpleasant odor. (^Ma- 

 ladies dcs Grains, p. 119.) 



In June, when the ears have issued from the 

 sheaths, the cankered ones are easily recognised, 

 by beiniX bluish, more narro^v, and the grains 

 more closely pressed to the stem (rachis.) At 

 this period the infected grain is covered with a 

 thick green membrane, enclosincr a whitish pulp, 

 and still bearing the stigmata on the summit, 

 while the anthers, small and yellow, seem glued 

 along the side of the ixi'ain, and do not exceed it 

 in height, The fa3tid smell is also now much 

 stronger. (Tessier.) 



As the growth advances, the spike ceases to 

 have -the grains so close to the stem (rachis,) and 

 even becomes larger than in healthy plants. The 

 chaff opens as if unnaturally distended, the em- 

 bryo or germen becomes shorter and rounder, and 

 exhibits the appearance both of swelling and, as 

 Kirby expresses it, "inflammation." Instead of 

 the pale, pleasant green, which is the healthy 

 color of the grain, it assumes a deep dingy hue. 

 The pulpy substance passes successively from 

 whitish to ashy-grey and greyish-brown, and the 

 stigmata are now reduced to the form of slender 

 threads. The maturity of the cankered ears is 

 more early efl"ected than in healthy plants, in the 

 same way as diseased fruit ripens soon. This 

 maturity is indicated by the yellowness of the 

 stems, and the grayish-brown of the cankered 

 grains, which are filled with a black powder,, that 

 rarely, as is the case with smut, bursts throagh 

 the husk or bran envelope; but when it is bruised 

 or opened, emits a f<£tid smell worse than that of 

 putrid fish, and when walking to leeward of a field 

 much infested vvith canker, the smell is scarcely 

 s,i[)portable. (Tessier,) The wheat plants, as 

 Mr. Bauer says, which are infected with canker^ 

 may readily be distinguished by their greatersize, 

 being several inches taller than the healthy ones. 

 In all instances of cankered wheat, he found a 

 greater number of stems produced from the same 

 root, the spikes containing more grains, and those 

 more perfect in form. The Abbe Tessier says, 

 he counted as many as sixty-eight grains in a 

 cankered spike, and rarely so many in healthy 

 ones. "One plant," says Mr. Bauer, produced 

 from seed which I had inoculated, had twenty-four 

 coiTiplete stems and ears, some of the stems with 

 the ears measuring above five feet, every part of 

 the plant proportionally large, and all the ears en- 

 tirely infijcted. Another specimen had eight 

 stems from the same root, five of them above six 

 feet high, and the ears entirely infected; the other 

 three stems considerably shorter, tiieir ears small- 

 er, and the frrains perfectly sound. 



M. M. Tillet, Duhamel, and Aymer, assures us, 

 that they have found in the same grain of wheat 

 sound white farina in one part, and the powder of 

 canker in the other, but the Abbe Tessier never 

 met with this. He found, however, that some 

 spikes were inlected on one side only, while the 

 opposite side was healthy. In some instances, five 

 or six perfectly sound s'rains were found in an in- 

 fected spike, and in other cases a few thoroughly 



