320 
NATURE 
[Aug. 18, 1870 
confirmed by the analogous connection of Restelia can- 
cellata, the pear blight, with the gelatinous parasite of 
Funiperus sabina, it is well to attend to the following 
facts :—Professor Henslow in an article on the diseases 
of wheat, in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
Society, proved distinctly that what is commonly called 
rust is merely a condition of the common mildew, and 
this at a time when comparatively little was known about 
these parasites, and when many were inclined to accept 
the views of Unger that they were mere abnormal de- 
velopments of tissue or spontaneous growths. The 
observations of Tulasne and others confirmed to a 
certain extent Professor Henslow’s view, but threw 
further light upon the matter by showing that many so- 
called Uredos were merely a subsidiary form of so many 
species of Puccinia. Meanwhile, though Uredo rubigo 
vera was the subsidiary form of Puccénia graminis, it was 
recognised that Uredo /inearis is nothing more than the 
early stage of the Puccénta. Though there is some re- 
semblance between the Uredinoid form of the Puccinia 
and the rust of the berberry, there is none between the 
perfect condition of the parasite. Our readers will have 
noticed that at the meeting of the French Academy on 
August 1st, M. Roze contributed some further illustrations 
of this interesting subject. 
The great difficulty has always been that mildew is most 
prevalent in countries where not a berberry bush is to be 
found ; and the same remark applies to the pear rust, 
which abounds where not a single plant of savine is to be 
seen, the parasite of the savine being comparatively of 
rare occurrence. I think, always assuming the fact of 
the connection between the two parasites, that it may be 
easily accounted for. It may be true that the berberry 
plant produces mildew ; but how is this? not probably 
from the spores of the present year, but from those which 
fell to the ground the previous season. Thereis no‘doubt 
that these parasites penetrate into the tissues of the 
young germinating plants, by means not of the original 
spores, but of minute secondary spores which are pro- 
duced on them, a circumstance which is fully proved in 
the case of bunt. This, then, will account for the cereal 
being mildewed in the neighbourhood of the berberry. 
But another consideration is necessary to explain the 
prevalence of mildew where the berberry does not exist, 
or where it is confined to gardens. The subsidiary spores 
have no doubt, equally with the Pzccznza itself, the property 
of reproducing the mildew, and there are always enough 
of these blown about, either from previous crops or from 
the neighbouring grasses, especially in the fens, where 
every ditch is filled with reeds affected more or less with 
mildew ; and thus the parasite may be propagated season 
after season without the A®cidioid form intervening, a 
circumstance which is not without analogy in other 
branches of the vegetable kingdom. I may be allowed, 
perhaps, to recall attention to an article on the develop- 
ment of bunt in the second volume of the Journal of the 
Horticultural Society of London, which seems entirely to 
have escaped notice on the Continent, where it is stated in 
a paper communicated by me on Jan. 18, 1847, with refer- 
ence to the phenomena described, that “it is quite possible 
that in plants as well as in the lower animals there may be 
an alternation of generations.” M. J. BERKELEY 
NOTES 
A RuMoUR is current that the Government have refused both 
ships and assistance to the Royal and Royal Astronomical 
Societies, which have been for some time organising expeditions 
to observe the approaching total eclipse of the sun. We can 
hardly believe that the Government will thus venture to brave 
the opinion of all men of science and culture, It would bea 
direct acknowledgment that the Government cares as little for 
a recent position for England in science and the arts of peace 
as it did a little time ago for her position in the arts of war. 
Verily we are a nation of Philistines ! 
Our readers will hear with great regret that Prof. Wyville_ 
Thomson is prevented by illness from taking that share in the 
scientific exploration of the Mediterranean basin, now about to 
commence, which has conduced so greatly to the success of the 
previous expeditions in which he has been one of the workers, 
M. OrTTo STRUVE, director of the Observatory at Poulkoya, 
M. Wild, director of the Physical Observatory at St, Petersburg, 
and M. Mohn, director of the Meteorological Institute of Chris- 
tiania, have just arrived in Paris, for the purpose of taking part 
in the international conference charged with establishing a uni- 
versal metre. In consequence, however, of the war, the meeting 
of the conference is postponed until such time as it may be sum- 
moned to meet by the Government. 
AMONG the chances of war which have necessitated that Paris 
should be placed in a state of defence against a besieging enemy, 
the rasing of the Bois de Boulogne has become one of the first 
necessary operations. The fine collection of animals belonging to 
the Société Imperiale d’Acclimatation will then have to share the 
fate of those belonging to the Zoological Society of Cologne, and 
be dispersed or removed till better times. It is even said that 
the axe is already at work. 
THE Franco-German War is telling heavily on science on the 
Continent. In the number of the Revue des Cours Scientifigus 
for August 13th, the Editor hints at the possible suspension at 
an early date of the publication of his journal till the war is over. 
To form an idea of the results of a general armament in Ger- 
many, it will be sufficient to learn that from the Berlin Chemical 
Laboratory, besides a great number of students, all the assistants, 
seven in number, have joined the army, partly as soldiers partly 
as field-apothecaries. When large masses of troops passed 
through Berlin, the director of the laboratory placed room for 
twenty soldiers at the disposal of the military authorities. 
University lectures have been prematurely closed. The military 
schools, the agricultural school, and the school of architecture 
had to close for want of pupils, The upper forms of the grammar 
schools have also sent many of their pupils into the field ; one 
of them as many as eighteen out of forty. 
THE engineering works of Messrs. Siemens and Halscke, 
and the ironfoundry of Borsig, are now almost exclusively occu- 
pied with the manufactory of torpedoes. It is said that great 
improvements have been made in these war-engines ; the point 
chiefly kept in view being to make them moveable from the 
shore by means of an electro-magnetical rotatory apparatus. 
THE season for Congresses Scientific and other has now fairly 
set in. A Medical and an Engineering Congress are now sitting 
in the north ; we last week gave some of the arrangements for the 
forthcoming meeting of the British Association at Liverpool, and 
it is now announced that the Social Science Congress will meet 
from the 21st to the 28th ot September, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
under the presidency of the Duke of Northumberland. The Social 
Science Congress has done what the British Association might 
also do to a certain extent with great advantage. It has stated 
the questions which press most for solution in the different 
branches of inquiry with which it deals. With two of these 
sections, namely, those of Education and Health, we are especially 
interested, and we willingly acknowledge the high importance 
of the questions which it is proposed to discuss. They are 
as follows :—Education. 1. Can better educational results in 
primary schools be obtained by the amalgamation of such schools? 
2. By what means cana direct connection be established between 
the elementary and secondary schools and the Universities? 3. 
Is it desirable to teach science in elementary schools, and, if so, 
