14 



On the Diseases of Wheat. 



unanimous in denouncing the berberry. L. A. Staudinger, an 

 experienced and enlightened cultivator, at Flotbeck, near Ham- 

 burgh, has published his observations on Ergot and Mildew, 

 made between 1799 and 1830; and, according to a review of 

 them in the Archives de Botanique, vol. ii. p. 285, he expressly 

 contradicts the commonly received opinion. Pie also refers to 

 some experiments of Hornemann, which were made in the 

 Botanic Garden at Copenhagen, who planted wheat, and sur- 

 rounded it with berberry-bushes, and repeated the experiment 

 several times, without obtaining any mildew. A similar experi- 

 ment was made, (if I recollect rightly) by Jussieu in the garden 

 of Trianon, with a like result. Mr. Knight also obtained only a 

 negative result in experiments of the same kind ; though in this 

 instance he would have been misled (mildew having attacked 

 the wheat), if he had not instituted a series of comparative ex- 

 periments, which satisfied him that no just inferences could be 

 drawn from what had happened to the wheat planted near the 

 berberry. I have not had any opportunity of seeing more than a 

 solitary case of berberry-bushes growing in the hedges of a wheat- 

 field ; which was in one of the fields already noticed at Audley- 

 End. The wheat was certainly more mildewed in their vicinity 

 than elsewhere ; but then, the bushes were precisely in that corner 

 of the field where the soil was decidedly the worst, and which was 

 also sheltered by lofty trees ; so that here, at least, there was no 

 positive testimony that the berberry was a pre-disposing, or assist- 

 ing cause ; since the effect might equally be ascribed to the worse 

 condition of the soil or to the shade of the trees. To those who feel 

 as interested as myself in having this question settled beyond dis- 

 pute, and who may possess the opportunity for doing so, I would 

 suggest the following experiment. Let berberry-bushes be planted 

 in the middle of some fields, and protected by fences. Let it be 

 observed whether the corn grown in those fields is mildewed, and 

 the circumstances under which this happens accurately noted ; 

 let all failures be equally recorded. If the results of these expe- 

 riments should tell to the prejudice of the berberry, I would will- 

 ingly travel many miles to be convinced, by personal inspection, 

 that this pretty and botanically interesting shrub had really caused 

 the evil imputed to it. 



Section IX. — On Ergot. 



Of all the diseases to which corn, or indeed any other plant is 

 subject, this is certainly the most extraordinary, from the strange 

 effects it produces on the animal economy. It is well known that 

 the punctures which certain insects make in the vegetable tissue, 

 for the purpose of depositing their eggs beneath the epidermis of 

 the living plant, induce a morbid action in those parts, which gives 



