Heterecism. 47 
the seven years of famine with which the Egyptians were 
afflicted were caused by mildew. This, of course, does 
not prove that the ancient Egyptians had any acquaint- 
ance with mildew, but it does show that in early English 
times the disease was not only known as an affection of 
cereals, but also that it was regarded as an agency suff- 
ciently powerful to cause famine. In Shakspeare’s time, 
mildew must have existed, for we read of how “ The foul_ 
fiend Flibbertigibbet mildews the white wheat.”* The 
fungoid nature of the mildew was not known, however, 
until the latter half of the last century, for Tull,t writing 
in 1733, attributes it to the attack of small insects, 
“brought (some think) by the east wind,” which feed upon 
the wheat, leaving their excreta as black spots upon the 
straw, “as is shown by the microscope”! Felice Fontana,{ 
some thirty years later, published an account of the fungus, 
with figures. Persoon,§ in 1797, gave it the name it still 
bears (Puccinia graminis), and also figured it, as did 
Sowerby || in 1799, under the name of Uredo frumenti. 
With regard to the fact that the barberry in some way 
favours the growth of mildew upon wheat, there is no 
doubt that it was well known to practical farmers during 
the eighteenth century, for we find in America, as early as 
1760, in the state of Massachusetts, an Act was passed by 
the legislature, compelling the inhabitants to extirpate all 
barberry bushes. In New England a similar law existed, 
which is referred to by Schépf** In our own country, 
* Shakspeare, ‘‘ King Lear,” act iii. sc. iv. 
+ Jethro Tull, “‘ Horse Howeing Husbandry,” 3rd edit. (1751,) p. 151. 
+ Felice Fontana, ‘‘ Osservazioni sopra la Ruggine del Grano.” Lucca: 
1767. : 
§ Persoon, ‘‘Tentamen Dispos. Method. Fungorum ” (1797), p. 39, t. iii. 
fig. 3. 
| Sowerby, “ English Fungi,” vol. ii. (1799), t. 140. 
{ For ‘‘ Barberry Law of Massachusetts,” see p. 302. 
** J.D. Schépf, ‘‘ Reise durch die mittleren und siidlichen vereinigten 
Nordamerikanischen Staaten,” theili. p. 56, Erlangen: 1788. 
