DRAWINGS OF MR. BADER. 39 



deserving their attention, and the principle itself 

 was, that the exercise of their intellectual facul- 

 ties upon the objects with which they are conver- 

 sant would, in time, convey to them a practical 

 reward. An extract from the pamphlet, taken 

 from Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Plants, will 

 show the design of the writer ; but it was 

 at that period productive of no great effect. 

 '* Botanists," he says, *^ have long known 

 that the blight in corn is occasioned by the 

 growth of a minute parasitic fungus, or mush- 

 room, on the leaves, stems, and glumes of 

 the living plant." In this observation sufficient 

 distinction is not made between the different 

 forms of these fungi. The fungus alluded to 

 here is only the puccinia, which is by no 

 means the sole fungal blight to which the corn- 

 grower's attention ought to be urgently called, 

 as will abundantly appear in the course of this 

 treatise. Mr. Bauer's drawings in the British 

 Museum contain nearly all the fungi referred 

 to, elaborately and beautifully figured. The 

 pamphlet continues, " Felice Fontana pub- 

 lished, in the year 1567, an elaborate account 

 of this mischievous weed, with microscopic 

 figures which give a tolerable idea of its form ; 

 more modern botanists have given figures both 



