134 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



another paper by the same author in the 'Journal of Botany,' XXVIII., 

 p. 257 (September, 1890), from which I take the following passage: — 

 * So far as I have been able to gather, the most prevalent form of rusfc 

 on wheat, barley, and oats in India is Puccinia rubigo-vera, D.C., and 

 not P. graminis, Per?. And this is true of the outer Himalayan 

 legion, where rust is very prevalent, and where three species of 

 barberry are common (B. lycium, Boyle; B. aristata, D.C. ; B. vulgaris, 

 L ), one of which, B. lycium, bears an ^cidium abundantly. At the 

 same time, I have never been able to find an .^Ecidium on any species 

 of Boraginese in the Himalayan region, and none is known on the 

 plains. Whilst P. rubigo-vera is apparently by far the commonest 

 rust in India, P. graminis is not wholly unknown. I have received 

 specimens of P. graminis from Jeypore, about 200 miles in a direct 

 line from the nearest known habitat of barberry ; but T have never seen 

 a specimen on the crops actually in the neighbourhood of sscidium- 

 bearing barberry. These facts are sufficient to show the mystery in 

 which the subject here is involved, and that it needs much more study 

 before anything useful can be written on it. The fungus on Linum 

 ('Ulsee') is apparently extremely common over large areas of the plains. 

 It is often so closely concurrent with rust on wheat and barley, that the 

 uredo stage on Linum has often been supposed to be the cause of the 

 rust on wheat. This supposition, however, cannot be entertained, with 

 our present knowledge, by botanists. The fungus on Linum is probably 

 a complete autcecious species.' 



" I especially draw your attention to this matter because our 

 fellow-member, Dr. Cobb, whose recent accession to our little band 

 of working members we are glad to welcome, and who since his 

 connection with the Department of Agriculture has had under investi- 

 gation the question of rust on wheat in this colony, at an early stage 

 of his observations also found that in the specimens submitted to him 

 by far the commonest rust was Puccinia rubigo-vera, D.C., and not P. 

 graminis. This result was some months ago announced in the daily 

 papers, and full particulars are given in the ' Agricultural Gazette,' 

 Vol. I., No. 3, p. 185. 



" To the newly established Forest Department our hopes turn not 

 only for a check to the wholesale destruction of timber which has been 

 going on for so long, to the conserving of such areas as are still 

 available, and to the planting and replanting of suitable tracts of 

 country, but for the realisation in this colony of a matter touched upon 

 by Baron von Mueller, in his presidential address at the second meeting 

 of the Australasian Association, namely the setting apart of areas in 

 different and suitable parts of the colony in which the vegetation and 

 its accompanying fauna may be left untouched, and preserved for 

 educational purposes. Surely our utilitarian necessities are not of so 

 pressing a character as to require every square foot of our richest and 

 best timbered areas to be delivered up to the settler's axe and fire-stick. 

 Comparatively few of even our native-born population know by 

 experience, from artistic representations, or even by adequate descrip- 

 tion, the beauty and luxuriance of our brushes and semi-tropical scrubs, 

 now alas in danger of altogether disappearing. As means of communi- 

 cation improve, as they are steadily doing, such districts as I speak of 

 will be gradually brought within easy reach of the metropolis, and thus 



