lxxxii 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



else can do, these crucial experiments may — namely, lead the 

 forester and arboriculturist to bury the hatchet. 



From the Kev. M. J. Berkeley to Dr. J. H. Gilbert. 



Sibbertoft, Market Harborougli, 

 December 17, 1868. 



My dear Sir, — After a careful examination of the specimens of 

 diseased wheat which you have communicated to me at different 

 times from South Australia, I beg leave to report as follows : — 



The Bed Rust is identical with what is known under that name 

 in this country. The specimens of powder consist almost entirely 

 of what has been called Uredo linearis, which is simply the imper- 

 fectly developed Puccinia graminis, or common wheat-mildew. 

 "With this are mixed a few of the obovate bodies which have been 

 considered a distinct species of Uredo (JJ. rubigo vera), but 

 which are, in fact, nothing more than the secondary form of fruit 

 which appears to be so constantly developed in different species of 

 Puccinia. 



Specimens of wheat affected with red rust accompanied the 

 dust, and completely confirmed the opinion which I formed from 

 its examination. The seed itself quite resembles ordinary mil- 

 dewed wheat as it comes into our markets, except that it is 

 entirely free from Cladosporium herharum, which is so often de- 

 veloped on the tags in this country, or from any other dark- 

 coloured mould, a circumstance which doubtless arises from some 

 different condition of climate which prevails after the mildew has 

 been fully established, from what we ourselves experience in bad 

 mildew years. 



I believe that no chemical treatment is of the slightest use in 

 mildew, analogous to what is constantly successfully practised in 

 the case of bunt (Tilletia) — which is often confounded with smut 

 ( Ustilago), a very different thing, and which, apart from other cha- 

 racters, is at once known by its nauseous fish-like smell. 



Of the three samples of "Take-all" transmitted to me, the 

 second is undoubtedly nothing more than common wheat-mildew ; 

 and I shall therefore confine my observations to that received 

 originally, and a third transmitted to me from the Bank of South 

 Australia by yesterday's post, and which is identical with the first 

 specimens which I examined. The first impression was, that it 

 was a mere case of blight arising from imperfect cultivation in 

 overworked land without any attention to rotation of crops, and 



