30 

 THE BERBERIS AND MILDEW. 



In the history that has been given of this remarkable fungus 

 and its many forms, it has been endeavoured to avoid minute 

 details and elaboration, and merely to place before those 

 principally and vitally interested the most salient and practical 

 points. The least clear and definite among these is in respect 

 of the intermediate host of the fungus, which is alleged to be the 

 Berberis ; and the Berberis alone. The careful investigations of 

 De Bary failed to discover any other means of continuity. Many 

 skilled mycologists have made experiments in this direction 

 without any new discovery. Mr. Plowright has especially 

 devoted himself to this study, and though once light seemed to 

 be showing, obscurity still prevails. 



This Berberis connection has been long known. Sagacious 

 British farmers a great while ago suspected barberry trees of 

 blasting their wheat. It formed the subject of one of Arthur 

 Young's questions in the wheat mildew circular alluded to 

 before.* Sir Joseph Banks speaks of the possible connection 

 between the barberry and mildew. Sir John Sinclair also 

 mentions cases where the presence of " barberry bushes " caused 

 mildew in the neighbourhood, f 



In France the pernicious influences of the barberry is 

 fully recognised. As recently as April 1891 an order was 

 issued by the Prefect of the Department of Eure-et-Loire, based 

 upon the law of 1888 empowering local authorities to decree 

 the destruction of insects and fungi injurious to agriculture, 

 compelling landowners, tenants, and metayers, to root out and 

 utterly destroy the barberry (1'epine vinette) upon their farms 

 and lands before the loth of July 1891, and in woods and 

 forests to a distance of 32 yards from their outsides, seeing that 

 the barberry is a veritable scourge of cereals, on which it 

 develops black rust (rouille noire). 



Then there is the old barberry law of Massachusetts, America, 

 enacted by the Governor, Council, and House of Represen- 

 tatives,t which provided that, in order " to prevent damage to 

 English grain from barberry bushes " all such bushes should be 

 destroyed. 



It should be understood that the cecidium of Pnccinia 

 graminis has been found upon several species of Berberis. 

 Mr. Plowright grvcs a list of eight of these, including one of 

 the pinnate species known as Mahonia, which are so frequently 

 found in ornamental woods and shrubberies. It has also been 

 produced upon Mahonia aquifolium, which is so largely used 



Annals of Agriculture, by Arthur Young, Esq., F.R.S., vol. xliii., 1808. 



f Result of an Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Blight, the Rust, 

 and the Mildew, by Sir J. Sinclair, Bart, M.P. 



J Province Laws of Massachusetts, 1736-1761, p. 152. Anno Regni 

 Rejds Georgii II., Yicesimo Octavo, Cap. X. (Issued January 13, 1755). 



Wheat Mildew and its connection with the Barberry. Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, August 1882. 



