16 HISTORY OF PHYTOPATHOLOGY 



(which, some call a fungus, others a bark blister), and it 

 resembles the effect of sun-scorch. The fig is also 

 liable to scab." 



"The fig is also often a victim to rot and to krados." 

 "Scab chiefly occurs when there is not much rain, after 

 the rising of the Pleiad." 



"Moreover, there are certain affections, due to season 

 or situation, which are likely to destroy the plant, but 

 which one would not call diseases; I mean such affections 

 as freezing and what some call scorching." 



"As to diseases of seeds some are common to all, as 

 rust, some are peculiar to certain kinds; thus chick-pea 

 is alone subject to rot." "Some again are liable to canker 

 and mildew, as cummin. But creatures which do not 

 come from the plant itself but from without do not do so 

 much harm." 



"Generally speaking, cereals are more liable to rust than 

 pulses, and among these barley is more liable to .it than 

 wheat; while of barleys, some are more liable than others, 

 and most of all, it may be said, the kind called 'Achillean.' 

 Moreover, the position and character of the land make no 

 small difference in this respect; for lands which are ex- 

 posed to the wind and elevated are not liable to rust, 

 or less so, while those that lie low and are not exposed 

 to wind are more so. And rust occurs chiefly at full 

 moon." t 



Aristotle incidentally records the epiphytotic occur- 

 rence of rusts, but Theophrastus appears to have made a 

 careful study of these diseases in cereals as they occurred 

 in his day in ancient Greece. So frequent and destruc- 

 tive were these diseases that the ancient Greek farmer 

 regularly besought Apollo or some other of his numerous 



