406 MAIZE 



CHAP, ever maize is grown, e.g. in the United States, France, 

 x ' Germany, Italy, India, and South Africa. 



He (Evans, 3) notes that some breeds of maize "are 

 far more susceptible than others ; those varieties which have 

 been longest in the country, e.g. Transvaal Yellow, seem to be 

 affected most " ; apparently this depends in part on seasonal 

 conditions and the stage of development of the maize plant at 

 the time these conditions prevail. In Rhodesia it has been 

 stated that Hickory King, Golden Dent, and His Excellency 

 were particularly susceptible. In the season 1905-6 over 

 one hundred strains of maize were under cultivation at 

 the Botanical Experiment Station, Pretoria, and brown rust 

 appeared on nearly all of them, to a greater or lesser extent ; 

 Transvaal Yellow and Egyptian were very appreciably affected 

 by it, but there was little damage apparent on the others. 



Brown rust is also said to propagate upon the teosinte 

 and sugar-cane plants. 



A serious outbreak of rust in the maize crop of the Pretoria 

 district in February, 191 1, coupled with reports concerning the 

 damage done elsewhere, especially in the Eastern districts of 

 the Cape Province, in Rhodesia and in British East Africa, 

 rendered an investigation of the life-history of the pest advis- 

 able, for in many instances a large proportion of the plants 

 were so severely attacked that they set no ears. To quote 

 directly : — 



"The severe epidemic of the rust at the Botanical Experi- 

 ment Station, Pretoria, was preceded by a heavy and most 

 noticeable aecidial infection of Oxalis corniculata plants close 

 by, and the probable association of these two rusts, the one 

 with the other, was immediately suggested by Prof. J. C. 

 Arthur's cultures of Uredineas in 1904, in which he found that 

 the aecidiospores of .Ecidium Oxalidis Thuem., on Oxalis 

 cymosa Small., when sown on maize produced the uredo-form 

 of Puccinia Maydis Bereng. 



"A collection of the infected Oxalis corniculata leaves was 

 made and a number of healthy maize plants, growing in the 

 greenhouse, inoculated with the recidiospores thus obtained. 

 In ten days all the inoculated plants were showing a profuse 

 development of uredo-pustules of Puccinia Maydis. This 

 result left no doubt as to the connection between the recidium 

 on Oxalis corniculata and the brown rust of the mielie. Thus 



