172 DISEASES OF FIELD & GARDEN CROPS. [en. 



states that lie only knew of a solitary instance of barberry 

 bushes growing near corn, and there the corn was worse 

 mildewed than elsewhere, not because of the juxtaposition 

 of the barberries, but because the bushes were at a corner 

 of the field where the soil was decidedly the worst, and 

 where the corn was sheltered by lofty trees. Other 

 observers, and equally reliable, have given evidence of a 

 positively opposite character, one agriculturalist going so 

 far as to state that he had never even seen corn growing 

 near a barberry bush without its being injured more or 

 less. Phillipar, in the work already quoted, says, in 

 reference to corn mildew and barberry blight, that he was 

 never able to meet with sufficiently conclusive evidence 

 for a conviction of the barberry. On the contrary, he 

 states that he has seen many instances in which hedges 

 were filled with barberry bushes, without the corn, which 

 Was near them, having sustained the slightest injury. 

 Nothing can be made of the old agricultural evidence, 

 for what is stated by one side is soon after flatly contra- 

 dicted by the other. 



Sir Joseph Banks was one of the first to suggest that 

 the yellow fungus of the barberry might be another form 

 of the rust fungus of corn, but this was only a guess on 

 Sir Joseph's part, founded on a popular belief. A very 

 early reference to the supposed injurious effect of the 

 barberry on corn may be found in Krunit/'s Encyclo- 

 pedia, 1774. 



Mr. "Win. Carruthers, F.R.S., in his paper on wheat 

 mildew published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, ser. 2, vol. xviii., part, ii., p. 495, brings forward 

 an instance (quoted by Professor Henslow) in favour of the 

 connection of corn mildew and barberry blight ; but he 

 omits the opposing evidence as printed in the same paper. 

 In the particular instance quoted by Mr. Carruthers the 

 cornfield was bounded in one part by a " young and 

 healthy quickset hedge ; " here it is presumed there was 

 little or no mildew ; but in another part of the field there 



