Philip: The Uredinee. 383 
Fontana, an Italian, appears to have been the first to dis- 
cover the true nature of the mildew, and published an account 
of it, with figures of the Fungus, in 1767; but twelve years 
before that, an Act was passed by the Province of Massachu- 
setts, for the complete extirpation of the Barberry plant in 
that district, so firm was the belief that it was an agent in 
causing the rust of the wheat plant. The same belief existed 
in this country. In 1804 there was a severe outbreak of wheat 
mildew, and Barberry bushes were destroyed in almost every 
quarter. The then Board of Agriculture asked for the opinions 
of farmers on the matter, and circumstantial evidence was 
furnished in abundance implicating the Barberry as an agent 
in the blight. The farmers stuck to their faith, though laughed 
at for their superstition. The progress of science, has, how- 
ever, proved them in the right. 
In 1805, Sir Joseph Banks wrote a paper on wheat mildew 
in which he made one of those remarkable guesses which seem 
more the result of intuition than of scientific observation, yet 
which have so often anticipated discoveries. Among other 
points, he mentioned the prevailing belief among farmers, 
and added, ‘Is it not more than possible that the parasitic 
fungus on barberry and that of wheat are one and the same 
species, and that the seed is transferred from the barberry to 
the corn.’ A few years later this remarkable guess was demon- 
strated to be true by Schoeler, a Danish schoolmaster, by a 
series of field observations and experiments. Strangely enough, 
considering the importance of the question to the agricultural 
interest, the matter was allowed to sleep for almost another 
fifty years. In 1864, De Bary, among other experiments 
with the different stages of the Uredines and their host plants 
he had for a few years been conducting, conclusively proved the 
connection of the zcidium spores on barberry and the puccinia 
spores on wheat, etc. 
These facts, once established, research on similar lines was 
carried on with numerous plants, and their Uredine parasites. 
The cluster cup spores of the nettle were found to produce the 
puccinia on carex ; those on coltsfoot.to produce the puccinia 
on poa-grass ; those on daisy to produce the puccinia on the 
field woodrush, and so on. The puccinia associations on 
the common reed were more complicated, yet were unravelled ; 
these were found to comprise three distinct species, having 
their zcidium stage respectively on Ranunculus bulbosus and 
vepens, on Rumex acetosa, and on various other docks but not on 
R. acetosa. These and other facts have only been acquired 
by very numerous and careful cultures by Dr. Plowright and 
others, including the late H. T. Soppitt, in this country ; and 
by Klebahn, and numerous other botanists on the Continent, 
and in America. 
agit Nov. I. 
