1 14 Brand in the Cereals. [Sept., 



forms of disease, to be regarded as a complete u-Jwle, without any 

 reference to their primitive origin, so far as this is possible; since 

 to the perfect physiological knoivledge of an organised subject 

 must belong previously the entire knouiedge of its nature and an- 

 atomical structure; as without these two foundations the wiiter 

 can only deal in unfounded suppositions and superficial discourse, 

 full of empty words. This is especially the case if, belonging to 

 a certain school, he is desirous of glossing over a bold, upright 

 admission of his ignorance with philosophical forms. But to our 

 subject. 



The vegetable parasites, like the animal, form a large and ex- 

 tremely numerous family of plants, and the greatest portion of 

 them belong to the class of the fungi. Those parasites, which 

 develope themselves in the texture of our grain plants, are by far 

 the most worthy of notice, and therefore I have examined them 

 first of all, and will afterwards describe and delineate the kinds 

 which habitate in our other cultivated plants. 



The various kinds of brand collectively belong to a family of 

 fungi of humble rank, which natural historians call by the family 

 name of the Caeomacece, and all the species of this great family 

 are parasites. They are distinguished from all the kindred fami- 

 lies to which they are allied, in their internal organic texture, by 

 the single characteristic that they have solely one-celled spores or 

 seeds. The species of this fauiily, most impoitant for our consid- 

 eration, are the Wheat Brayid, the Oat Brand, the Barley Brand, 

 the Maize and Millet Brands. All these species habitate only 

 in the family of the grasses, and of our cultivated grasses rye is 

 only to be distinguished as that species on which, up to this time, 

 there has with certainty been found no true species of brand, an 

 observation which was hrst made by Prof Kunze of Leipsic, and 

 which I have thus far found confirmed in almost all parts of Cen- 

 tral Europe, although many writers speak of the rye brand as 

 one of the niost common a})pearances. In the level country of 

 Germany and Austria, besides the red stalk rust ( Uredo rubigo) 

 and the stalk brand, {Puccinia graminis) no brand is found on 

 rye; and it is only in the mountainous regions which are cloudy 

 and moist, that there is a fungiJs of the family of the fibrous fungi, 

 [Trichoi'el Hypbomycetes ./3?/c/.) which lodges in the ears of rye, 

 and which fungus the common people very incorrectly call the 

 rye brand or smoke brand, and which I shall consider particularly 

 hereafter. 



I shall likewise take for granted many explanations of the 

 definitions of particular organs and phraseology; for, as :.i:ch ex- 

 planations could only be very short in a periodical journ:.], they 

 must hence be also imperiect, and the reader may acquii j accu- 

 rate and minute knowledge of the terms here a} plied tci Che cr- 



