1847.] Brand in the Cereals. 115 



gans, in my Guide to the Study of Mycology, pages 21-36. I 

 will Iheretbre omit the same, and proceed at once to the descrip- 

 tion of the structure of the various species of brand. 



I. Of the Wheat or S.mut Branu, (Uredo Sitophila Dlftmar.) 

 Plate I. Fig. 1—22. 



Among all the species of brand which infest our grain crops, 

 this is by far the most worthy of notice. It lodges only in the 

 ears of wheat, and is found in no other kind of grain or grass. It 

 migrates with wheat in all climates of the earth, without being 

 subject to local influences, as is almost ever the case with the oth- 

 er cultivated plants. The farmer dreads it most, and justly, for 

 being lodged in the ears when they arc brought to be threshed, it 

 is there (Hspersed by the Hail or threshing machine, and thus di- 

 I'ectly infects the sound grain, while the barley and oat brands are 

 for the most part out on the fuld, and hence the largest portion 

 of the seed of these latter kinds of brand necessarily tails on mea- 

 dow, forest, or other kinds of soil, which are not applied to the 

 cultivation of grain, and so, for the want of plants adapted to the 

 infection, are not further spi'ead. But the consideration of the 

 infection and transmission of the various species of brand by 

 means of threshing and the sowing of their seeds, I reserve lor a 

 more comprehensive subsequent treatise. 



Those halms of wheat which afterwards bear ears affected 

 with brand, may be early distinguished, before their bloom, by 

 their luxuriant growth and their dai k green color, as well as by their 

 large, broad, stiff leaves. They apparently bloom much earlier; 

 but very often (yet not always) their anthers contain no grains of 

 pollen (powder of fructification), and the first act of fructification, 

 the shedding of their pollen on the cup of the pistil, is very im- 

 perfect, and should the ears affected by the brand and already dis- 

 eased be dusted with sound pollen, the little balls of pollen, usual- 

 ly form no aggregation of pollen on the pistil, or such as are 

 formed do not press into the pistil and down to the ovary. The 

 fructification of the blossoms of wheat affected by brand is there- 

 fore imperfect, and in case the grains of pollen form no cluster in 

 the cup, then there is indeed no fructification. But the careful 

 observer finds on almost all the ears ripe for receiving the grains 

 of brand, on the side of every seed corn affected with brand, one 

 or two anthers (Plate I, Fig. 3, 4, h, b), which on the buds which 

 are well fructified and bear seed, the anthers with their stamens 

 have long since fallen off. The anthers which remain standing 

 on the grains affected with brand, are usually destitute of pollen, 

 and sometimes we find that the same, in consequence of efforts at 

 imperfect fructification, are stuck, as it were, (Fig. 4, b, right 

 side), to the pistils which remain standing (Fig. 4, c). The 



