[ 237 3 



There is every reason to believe, from the re* 

 searches of Sir Joseph Banks, that the smut in wheat 

 is produced by a very small fungus which fixes on 

 the grain : the products that it affords by analysis are 

 similar to those afforded by the puff-ball ; and it is 

 difficult to conceive, that without the agency of some 

 organized structure, so complete a change should be 

 effected in the constitution of the grain. 



The mistletoe and the ivy, the moss and the 

 lichen, in fixing upon trees, uniformly injure their ve- 

 getative processess, though in very different degrees. 

 They are supported from the lateral sap vessels, and 

 deprive the branches above of a part of their nourish- 

 ment. 



The insect tribes are scarcely less injurious than 

 the parasitical plants. 



To enumerate all the animal destroyers and ty- 

 rants of the vegetable kingdom would be to give a ca- 

 talogue of the greater number of the classes in zoolo- 

 gy. Every species of plant almost is the peculiar 

 resting place, or dominion of some insect tribe ; and 

 from the locust, the caterpillar, and snail, to the mi- 

 nute aphis, a wonderful variety of the inferior insects 

 are nourished, and live by their ravages upon the ve- 

 getable world. 



I have already referred to the insect which feeds 

 on the seed-leaf of the turnip. 



The Hessian fly, still more destructive to wheat, 

 has in some seasons threatened the United States with 

 a famine. And the French government is* at this 



* January 1813. 



