84: VIBEIO TRITICT, OR 



other destroyers of the wheat there is no space; 

 nor is it necessary, since they are within the 

 reach of common observation, and do not require 

 the aid of the microscope to reveal them. The 

 first insect to be brought before the reader is one 

 of the most singular of living creatures ; and 

 were its habits not thoroughly investigated and 

 proved, they would seem almost incredible. Its 

 attacks are confined to the farinaceous portion 

 of the grain, which it destroys and replaces, 

 producing the diseases known by the name of 

 ear-cockle, pepper-corn, or purples. A grain 

 of wheat infected by this blight assumes the 

 appearance of a black pepper-corn, whence the 

 second name is clearly derived. The whole 

 ear is altered in appearance : the chaff husks 

 open,' and the awms become curiously twisted, 

 so that such ears are easily distinguished from 

 the healthy crop. The grains first turn dark 

 green, and then black ; and, as has been said, 

 look exactly like little black pepper-corns. If 

 one of them be divided into two with a pen- 

 knife, it will be found completely filled with a 

 dense white cottony mass, occupying the place 

 of the flour, and leaving merely a little gluti- 

 nous matter. These contents seem to the eye 

 like a quantity of fibres, closely packed together 



