222 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Massachusetts a law was passed enacting that in 

 order to prevent damage to corn from rust all 

 barberry bushes should be destroyed. 



It is often found that the leaves of the barberry 

 in the spring are covered both on their upper and 

 under surfaces with yellowish spots. Examination 

 with the microscope proves that those on the upper 

 surface are due to a number of cup or flask-shaped 

 pits (Spermagonia) filled with hairs, from the tips 

 of which minute bodies resembling spores are 

 abstracted. (Fig. 5s.) These, however, are not 

 true spores, and the part that they play is compara- 

 tively unknown and apparently unimportant. 



Of far more importance are the spots on the 

 under surface of the leaf. These when ripe are 

 also cup-shaped depressions, filled with chain-like 

 rows of true spores, which have been formed 

 from fungus filaments seen in the base of the 

 cup. (Fig. 5 A.) 



The filaments producing these spores were at 

 one time supposed to be those of a distinct 

 parasitic fungus, called JEcidium berberidis, and 

 that these should have any connection with rust 

 in wheat was not even dreamed of. An eminent 

 German botanist, however, made the startling 

 discovery that these aecidiospores would germinate 

 freely on the wheat plant and moreover would 

 produce spores exactly identical with the yellow 

 uredospores. Hence the connection between the 

 barberry and the w~heat was made more in- 

 telligible than before. But how did the aecidiospores 

 come to exist on the barberry ? For this reason, 

 that the dark teleutospores formed on the wheat 

 will germinate on the barberry leaves and produce 

 the yellow spots on the leaves. 



Thus it is clear that this parasitic fungus has a 

 peculiar and interesting life cycle, which may be 

 summarized thus : the fungus produces 



(1) Earlv yellow uredospores ) , 



; . T ' . r - on the corn, 



(2) Later rusty teleutospores, J 



which germinate and produce 



(3) yEcidiospores on the barberry leaf, which ger- 

 minate and produce (1) 



This peculiarity of a fungus requiring two hosts 

 on which to complete its life history is not confined 

 to this particular instance. There is another whose 

 two hosts are the juniper tree and the hawthorn, 

 and also some others. By removing barberry 

 bushes, therefore, from the neighbourhood of 

 cornfields we deprive the fungus of one of its hosts, 

 and thus it will be unable to complete its life' cycle, 

 and so we may be able to get rid of the disease. 

 It is possible, however, that there are other hosts 

 which can take the place of the barberry, for the 

 disease has been known to exist in places which are 

 absolutely devoid of barberry bushes. 



Space will not admit for the consideration of 

 many other facts bearing on the rust disease, such 

 as the condition of the soil and of temperature 

 and moisture, which are most favourable to the 

 growth of the fungus. Suffice it to say that on the 

 whole the disease has been more prevalent in wet 

 summers than in dry, and that its spread depends 

 partly on the variety of grain sow^n, and that crops 

 grown on highly cultivated land seem to be more 

 liable to be attacked than others. 



As to a radical cure, however, for the disease, 

 this has yet to be discovered. 



Kingswood School, Bath ; June, 1S94. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE. 

 By William Hewett. 



HpHE Rev. C. D. Ash, of Skipwith Vicarage, 

 near Selby, informs me that the turtle-dove 

 (Turtur communis), a very local bird in Yorkshire, 

 has this season bred near Skipwith, and that he 

 has seen the nest together with the old and young 

 birds. 



Almost as scarce in the county, are eggs of the 

 woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), but some boys found 

 four in a wood near Bradford in the West Riding. 



A nest and eggs of the hawfinch (Coccothraustes 

 vulgaris), were obtained this summer in Bolton 

 Woods, from a branch overhanging the Strid, near 

 Bolton Abbey. 



The egg season at Bempton, Speeton, and Buck- 

 ton, has been up to the average. The gulliemot 

 (Lomvia troile), and razorbill (Aha tarda), have this 

 year been as plentiful as usual, and some very fine 

 varieties and monstrosities of their eggs were 



obtained by the climbers. Of these I have been 

 fortunate enough to secure several beautiful 

 examples. Kittywakes (Rissa tridactyla), were 

 decidedly commoner than last year, whilst the 

 puffins (Fratercula arciica), were not so numerous. 



Cuckoo (Cucuhis canorus) : I had the good fortune 

 to both see and hear this welcome harbinger of 

 spring twice on April 5th, 1894, whilst crossing 

 Strensall Common, York, on the second occasion 

 I was within a dozen yards of it. This is an 

 unusually early date, the third week in April is 

 the period when it is generally first seen or heard 

 in the north of England. It was also seen and 

 heard on the 18th April, near Strensall, by a 

 competent observer. On the 4th July, I heard it 

 calling repeatedly in its usual note, about 6.30 p.m., 

 in a wood near York, whilst the Rev. C. D. Ash, 

 of Skipwith, saw a female cuckoo on Skipwith 





