0,oO ON THE BLIGHT IN CORN. 



Italy is very (abject to it, and the laft harveft of Sicily lias 

 been materially hurt by it. Specimens received from the 

 colony of New South Wales fhevv lhat confiderable mifchiet 

 was done to the wheat crop there in the year 1803 by a para- 

 fitic plant, very fimilar to the Englifh one. 

 Common opinion It has been long admitted by farmers, though fcarcely ere- 



that wheat in the jj te( | . botanifts, that wheat in the neighbourhood of a bar- 

 neignbourhoodor , J ■ ° 



barberries is berry bufh feldom elcapes the blight. The village of Rollefby 

 mod frequently j n Norfolk, where barberries abound, and wheat feldom fuc- 

 ceeds, is called by the opprobrious appellation of Mildew 

 Rollefby. Some obferving men have of late attributed this 

 very perplexing effect to the farina of the flowers of the bar- 

 berry, which is in truth yellow, and refembles in Come degree 

 the appearance of the ruft, or what is prefumed to be the 

 blight in its early flate. 

 The barberry It is, however, notorious to all botanical obfervers, that the 



leaf is very tub- | eaves f ( |-, e barberry are very fubject to the attack of a 

 left to a mildew ,. - . . . , , , •/• . r i i 



fungus ■ yellow parahtic lungus, larger, but otherwiie much relembling 



the ruft in corn. 



which may be Is it not more than poffible that the parafitic fungus of the 



transferred to barberry and lhat of wheat are one and the fame fpecies, and 

 corn. / . ' 



that the feed transferred from the barberry to the corn is one 



caufe of the difeafe. Mifletoe, the parafitic plant with which 

 we are the beft acquainted, delights moft to grow on the apple 

 and hawthorn, but. it flourifhes occationally on trees widely 

 differing in their nature from both of thefe: in the Homo Park, 

 at Windfor, mifletoe may be feen in abundance on (he lime 

 trees planted there in avenues. If this conjecture is founded, 

 another year will not pais without its being confirmed by the 

 obfervalions of inquifitive and fagacious farmers. 

 Conjectures di- It would be prefumptuous to offer any remedy for a malady, 

 reeled to remedy, the progrefs of which is fo little uriderftood ; conjectures, 

 however, founded on the origin here affigned to it, may be 

 hazarded without offence. 

 Probable faft as It is believed * to begin early in the fpring, and firft to ap- 

 pear on the leaves of wheat in the form of ruft, or orange- 

 coloured powder ; at this feafon, the fungus will, in all pro- 



* This, though believed, is not dogmatically affcrted, becaiffe 

 Fontana, the beft writer on the iubje6r, afferts that the yellow and 

 the dark-cohnued blight are different fpecies of fungi. 



bability, 



itsearlieft 

 appearance 



