Report on the Diseases of Wheat. 



25 



that situation ; but if (as I suppose) it is the ichne unionized 

 caterpillars only which enter the earth, this would be destroying 

 the farmers' best friends. A little closer attention to the habits 

 of these insects another year, may enable some one to solve the 

 doubt. 



I am aware that in this imperfect report, I have not noticed all the 

 diseases to which corn is subject; and among them, a certain 

 semi-abortion of all, or most of the grains in the same ear ; of 

 which I have seen some examples in this neighbourhood, and have 

 been favoured, by Mr. Pusey and Dr. Buckland, with other spe- 

 cimens from the neighbourhood of Oxford. In the latter situa- 

 tion, a whole crop was very much injured in this way. When this 

 is the case, the entire plant (but more especially the ears) is 

 covered with a minute blackish fungus, as though it had been 

 powdered with soot. I do not believe, however, that this fungus 

 (Cladospo?iiim herbanim) is the original cause of the evil, but that 

 it merely attaches itself, superficially, to these and many other 

 plants after they have been brought into a state of decay. I had 

 supposed this kind of blight, in some of the localities where I 

 noticed it, to have been owing to draught, the crops growing in a 

 stiff clay which had become thoroughly hardened ; and Dr. Buck- 

 land formed the same opinion of the case which came under his 

 notice. In other cases, I considered it was owing to the injury 

 which had been done to the straw by high winds, which had much 

 bent and bruised them. Such effects as these are hardly to be 

 classed among the diseases of corn, and they are entirely a subject 

 for the enquiry of the agriculturist. The attacks, also, of many 

 insects and other animals, however injurious to the crops, are un- 

 accompanied by any morbid affection of the plant, which might 

 induce us to class such effects with those we have been consider- 

 ing ; and it falls rather to the Zoologist than to the Botanist to 

 notice them. 



In concluding this report, I must express a hope that the 

 reasons already adduced will be considered sufficient excuse for 

 any inaccuracies. I have not written it as a scientific communica- 

 tion, but solely with the desire of directing the attention of prac- 

 tical agriculturists to what has alread^^ been done on the subject, 

 and to point out what they themselves are required to do towards 

 advancing our knowledge of the Diseases in Corn, and the modes 

 of providing remedies against them. 



J. S. Henslow. 



Hitcham, Bildeston, Suffolk, 

 September 14, 1840.' 



In the observations I this year made upon the apparent diseases in- 

 fecting my wheat-crop, T find that at one period, about the middle of July, 



