56 



infected, as seen in Fig. 2, and the infection was spreading within 

 the folds and tissues of the pericarp. There had not, however, 

 been much harm occasioned to the barley at that time. The 

 rows were fairly well filled on the whole. There were blanks 

 here and there, and abortive grains in some cases both at the top 

 and the bottom of the rows. The Oladosporium was found upon 

 the straw of these barley ears, but not by any means extensively. 



Barley plants came from East Kent a few days later whose 

 straw was much infected and discoloured by the Cladosporium. 

 The rows were not well filled ; the upper and lower grains were 

 either very small, or had aborted. Here also the fungus was 

 upon the stamineous end of each grain at the base of the awn, 

 and had spread considerably into the pericarp on both sides of 

 the grains (Fig. 2). Upon the sheathing leaves and straw 

 of these plants the fungus was so abundant as to materially 

 spoil the straw as fodder for stock. 



At the meeting of the Committee of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, on the 13th of October, it was reported that Mr. 

 Plowright bad sent specimens of wheat showing Cladosporium 

 upon it. Mr. Plowright remarked that " such a development of 

 parasitic life cannot but be detrimental to the wheat affected 

 by it, and it is probable that the Cladosporium has much to 

 do with the poor yield so many agriculturists complain of this 

 year." 



Mr. Plowright also mentioned that it had been considered that 

 Cladosporium on rye in Sweden produced diarrhoea, vomiting, 

 and derangement of nerve centres, causing dizziness and a stagger- 

 ing gait, like that of a drunken man, in persons who partook of 

 bread made from grain thus infected. Last year Professor 

 Woronin, the well known mycologist, was called in by the 

 Russian Government to investigate a series of cases in which 

 these same disorders were occasioned by rye-grains infected by 

 Cladosporium herbarium, at Vladovosky, on the coast of the Sea 

 of Japan, in the extreme east of the Russian Empire, and found, 

 from careful experiments, that though Cladosporium herbarum 

 was present, the extraordinary symptoms caused in men and 

 animals from eating the infected grains were not due to it, but 

 to another fungus, Fusarium roseum, al-^o present upon them.* 

 Professor Woronin gave an account in the Botanike Zeitung, 

 1891, No. 6, of the experiments made as to this curious affection, 

 termed Oer-rag in Sweden, and Taumel Getreide, or intoxicating 

 corn, in Germany. He attributes this entirely to the Fusarium 

 roseum, though he points out that Cladosporium herbarum was 

 found in abundance upon the sheathing leaves and straw as well 

 as on the chaff and grains, whose upper parts it had injured 

 the most. It should be noted here how accurately this descrip- 

 tion of the position of Cladosporium herbarum, as given by 

 Professor Woronin, corresponds with the experiences recorded 



* The inhabitants of the Corea and the parts of China near also suffer from the 

 same fungoid affection of the corn. 



