THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 115 



destroy the produce, although it almost invariably de- 

 teriorates it ; but nothing survives the attacks of smut. 

 The name 'kandwa' is applied to a totally distinct 

 disease in the case of the millets, when it denotes the 

 fungus known as ' bunt ' or ' ergot ' in England, which 

 fills the grain with a greasy black powder, leaving the 

 plant, and indeed the grain itself, externally perfectly 

 healthy looking. Bunt does not appear to be so common 

 in wheat in Hindustan as in England. 



The disease known as ' lakhua ' (Polycystis) consists of 

 spores which fill the plant tissues, and break out when 

 ripe in longitudinal fissures exactly like rust, from which, 

 however, it differs, in each spore being a spherical 

 agglomeration of numerous cells (somewhat resembling 

 a blackberry in shape), instead of being unicellular. 

 Lakhua is said altogether to prevent a plant from bearing 

 ears. 



But by far the most extraordinary disease to which 

 wheat is liable is that known as ' sehwan,' in which the 

 young wheat grains are found to be filled with minute 

 worms in various stages of development, comparatively 

 large sized (apparently), males and females being asso- 

 ciated with a mass of oval-shaped eggs, from which 

 smaller and less highly organized worms emerge. As the 

 grain ripens at harvest-time, these worms will be found 

 to have completely filled the grain, having entirely 

 ousted (and possibly eaten) the males, females, and egg- 

 cases to which they owe their origin. The grain is 

 much shrivelled, and of a dark colour, and can be easily 

 recognised as infected. The most extraordinary fact 

 connected with this disease is, however, that the worms 

 can retain their vitality for a very long time, although 

 unprovided with any source of nutriment; and if an 



