ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



163 



improved microscopes, the rusts and moulds 

 have been properly studied. W. P. Schimper, 

 in 1848, in his liecherches sur les JTounses, estab- 

 lished, by experiment, that the so-called Con- 

 fen-acea; are the pregerminal phases of the 

 leaf-mosses, notwithstanding which, they are 

 yet very generally considered as sea-weeds or 

 algw, under a spurious nomenclature. Again, 

 each of the phases of the fermentative or 

 original zymotic fungus have been separately 

 named by those who have paid no attention to 

 its development, as has been demonstrated by 

 Prof. Hallier, of Jena, Germany, and by Dr. 

 Hilgard, of this country; while the bread and 

 ^ preserve moulds, the blue moulds on apples and 

 lemons, the cheese and stool ferments have all 

 been proved to be but dilTerent forms of one 

 species, by the latter gentleman. In our own 

 special department we might mention several 

 instances where closet-entomologists, with a 

 supreme contempt for larval or pupal charac- 

 ters, have fabricated two, three or more species 

 out of what upon more profound knowledge 

 have proved to be one and the same. 



Is it to be wondered at, therefore, with these 

 facts before us, that we prefer, rather than 

 .accept the ipsi.ssiiiin dicta of would-be savans, 

 to t.ake the testimony of men who, having de- 

 voted years to the study of funguses, announce 

 that the Red rust in wheat is but a form or stage 

 of the common Barberry rust. 



We attach more importance to a single fact. 

 based upon well conducted experiment, than to 

 ten thousand theories and "opinions" that have 

 no facts for their support, though they may be 

 ae(iuiesced in by the so-called authority through- 

 out the land. We always intend to be " severe 

 on the superficial errors of the day,"' and are 

 especially down on scientific charlatanism. We 

 have the highest respect for our friend and cor- 

 respondent. Dr. Trimble, of J^ew Jersey, but 

 when, in speaking on I his barberry-wheat ques- 

 tion, he simply asserts that " this is an old tra- 

 dition that I have heard from a boy, but there is 

 no foundation for the belief" ; and that "rust is 

 produced by another class of causes " — without 

 explaining what (hose causes are — his words 

 sound too much like hollow assertion, unsup- 

 ported by facts. Such words from the Doctor 

 appear the more astonishing to those who have 

 watched his strenuous efforts to overthrow an- 

 other superficial error, by demonstrating that 

 on some soils shallow plowing is to be preferred 

 to deep plowing, notwithstanding the latter has 

 from time immemorial been urged and recom- 

 mended, without qualification, by all theorists. 



But we will not dwell any longer on this sub- 



ject at present. We have long since admired 

 the courtesy and ability with which the Country 

 (fentlenian is conducted, and feel that the criti- 

 cism we have quoted, was made in all candor. 

 Calm and dispassionate argument and con- 

 Iroversy usually results in good, and if our 

 .\lbany friends will bring forth any argument 

 that is worthy the name, in favor of their posi- 

 tion, we may in future consider this matter at 

 greater length, and perhaps get our Botanical 

 Editor to give us his oiiinion, as it is really a 

 botanical matter. 



AVc shall defend the farmer whenever we 

 think he is in the right, for as in the old l<"'ablc 

 of the Printer and the Lion, the scientific artist 

 in the city who is every day publishing descrij)- 

 tions of men conquering lions in fair single 

 combat, has a great advantage over the poor 

 maligned agricultural lion in the country, who 

 publi>hes nothing at all, and confines himself to 

 the plain, practical occupation of gobbling up 

 as many men as he can possibly get hold of. 



Whether or not the opinion that Puccinia 

 ijraminis and ^Eridhun berberidis are the alter- 

 nate generations of one species, is " sustained 

 with a tenth part of the witnesses who assert 

 that wheat is transmuted into chess,"' is a ques- 

 tion entirely foreign to the subject, the wheat- 

 chess discussion having absolutely nothing to 

 do with that of Wheat and Barberiy :ust. And 

 as to the opinion that Barberry can not cause 

 rust in wheat because fine wheat has been 

 grown in close contiguity to such bushes, it 

 sounds too much like assuming that small-pox 

 is not contagious because a certain unvaccinated 

 person, living in a house where the disease pre- 

 vailed, escaped without catching it; for as we 

 may learn from the perusal of DeBary's pam- 

 phlets*^ a certain condition ot the atmosphere 

 is necessary to the proper germination of the 

 Wheat-BarbeiTy fungus. Moreover, we have 

 never assumed, nor will any sensible person 

 ever assume, that healthy Barberry bushes, free 

 from rust, will produce any rust in wheat. 



•N'eue Unti-isiichungen ueber Urciliiiceu, iusliesoudere iliu 

 Kntwickliing der Puccinia graminis. A. DeBary, Berlin, 

 1SB5. Zwi'itu Mittheilung, JS6U. 



"ThkueIs no branch of Natural History so 

 captivating as Entomology, and certainly none 

 so easily gratified; for its pursuit brings us 

 into immediate relation to Nature in her most 

 attractive dress, in the woods, the fields and the 

 gardens."' — Morris. 



Erratum. — Page 'J7, over the illustration, for 

 "Fig. 59,"' read "Fig. 594."" 



