.3SGIA] 



SH)c EreaSury ai 23otaug. 



22 



for imagining that the JEcidium is a tran- 

 sitional state of wheat mildew. It has its 

 own mode of propagation, and passes 

 through nearly the same phases of vege- 



^cidium tUssilaginis 



tation as the mildew, without affording 

 a suspicion that it is not a perfect plant. 

 The whole story has no doubt arisen from 

 the JEcidium being common on the ber- 

 berry in hedges surrounding wheat fields ; 

 and there is reason to believe the report is 

 true, that wheat has been especially mil- 

 dewed in the neighbourhood of the JEci- 

 dium. The peculiar situation, however, 

 may be equally favourable to either para- 

 site ; and it is to be observed, that mildew 

 is peculiarly prevalent in districts where 

 the berberry is unknown, except as a 

 garden plant. JEcidia attack phaenogam- 

 ous plants of various kinds, but they are 

 far less frequent on endogens than exo- 

 gens. Species occur in all parts of the 

 world, but are more common in temperate 

 regions. [M. T. B.] 



^GIALITIS. A genus of Plumbagi- 

 naccce, containing a small number of Aus- 

 tralian and Indian undershrubs, with thick 

 articulated stems, and alternate-stalked 

 ovate or roundish leaves of leathery tex- 

 ture ; flowers in spikelets, arranged in 

 branched spikes; calyx tubular-cylindri- 

 cal; petals small and white; styles quite 

 free and glabrous with awl-shaped stig- 

 mas. The seeds of A. annulosa, which 

 grows in mangrove swamps, are said to 

 germinate while on the plant. [J. T. S.] 



J3GICERACEJE. This name has been 

 given by Blume to JEgiceras, viewed as the 

 representative of a natural order contain- 

 ing no other genus than itself. It is, 

 however, generally included in myrsin- 

 ace^e, which see. 



^EGICERAS. A genus of Myrsinacem, 

 differing from all the other genera in that 

 family by its follicular fruit. The species, 

 of which there are five, consist of small 

 trees, inhabiting swampy shores in the 

 tropical parts of India, the Indian Archi- 

 pelago, and Australia, where they form 

 impenetrable thickets like the mangroves 

 (Rhizophora), in consequence of their seeds 



germinating while yet in the fruit, and 

 sending down strong perpendicular roots 

 into the mud, without separating from their 

 parents. They have obovate entire dotted 

 leaves, the upper surface of which is 

 often covered with a saline inci-ustation, 

 which, according to Blume, they secrete. 

 Their flowers are white, fragrant, in ter- 

 minal or axillary umbels ; the flower-stalks 

 articulated at the base. A. majus is the 

 only vegetation to be seen for miles along 

 the coast of Sumatra. [A. A. B.] 



yEGILOPS. A genus of grasses allied to 

 Trhicum, or wheat grass. It occurs wild 

 in the south of Europe and parts of Asia. 

 Botanists have recognisedas many as three 

 species ; but from recent experiments in 

 the culture of JEgilops, there is reason to 

 believe, not only that all the so-called 

 species are referable to one, namely, JE. 

 ovata, but that the JEgilops is, in reality, 

 the plant from which has originated our 

 cereal wheats. Upon this subject will be 

 found an interesting paper, translated from 

 the French, in the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society (vol. xv.l, from which 

 it would appear that M. Esprit Fabre, of 

 Agde, has made the JE. ovata the subject 

 of experiment, and that from it he obtained 

 the form known as JE. Triticoides, the con- 

 tinued cultivation of which latter, for six 

 years, resulted in the production of very 

 respectable ears of wheat. The changes 

 that occurred were a lessening in the 

 numbers of the awns, and a gradual con- 

 forming of the chaff scales to those of 

 wheat, a greater length and regularity of 

 growth in the ear, an enlargement of the 

 seed to that of the wheat, and a taller and 

 more upright habit of growth of the whole 

 plant. Both the experimental results, and 

 the conclusions of M. Fabre have been 

 doubted by some of the specific botanists, 

 and we are, therefore, glad to have an op- 

 portunity of recording the result of our 

 own experiments in this interesting mat- 

 ter. In 1854, we planted a plot with seed 

 of JE. ovata, from which was gathered seed 

 for a second plot in 1855, leaving the rest 

 of the first plot to seed itself, which it did, 

 and came up spontaneously. This plot has 

 since continued to bring forth its annual 

 crop in a wild state, in which the spikes 

 are short, and so brittle that they fall to 

 pieces below each spikelet the moment the 

 seed is at all ripe. The produce of the 

 1855 crop has, in the same manner, been 

 cultivated year by year in different parts 

 j of the experimental garden of the Royal 

 I Agricultural College, and our crop for 1860 

 j had many specimens upwards of two feet 

 ] high, and with spikes of flowers contain- 

 ing as many as twelve spikelets. Our con- 

 clusions then are, that with us the JEgilops 

 is steadily advancing ; and we fully expect, 

 in three or four years, to arrive at a true 

 variety of cereal wheat. What too is con- 

 firmatory of this matter, is that the bruised 

 foliage of the wild grass, and the cultivated 

 wheat, emits the same peculiar odour, and, 

 besides the JEgilops, is subject to attacks 

 of the same species of parasites (blights), 



