224 On the Fungi producing Rust and Mildew. 



of mildew in wheat.* At present I have met with no evidence 

 which can explain the natm^e of this relation. Is it that the soil, 

 or that some ingredient partially present in the soil, may be fa- 

 vourable to the growth of the berberry, and at the same time 

 deleterious to that of wheat : and thus reducing the latter plant to 

 the sickly state suited to the attack of Puccinia graminis ? — Is it 

 (what I presume no botanist will at present be prepared to admit) 

 that one of the berberry-blights (^JEcidium herheridis) can only be 

 a different form of development belonging to the same species of 

 fungus which produces the mildew ? — or may we suppose that 

 the disgusting odour of the flowers is due to some subtile emana- 

 tion which sickens the wheat-plant ? I do not feel myself com- 

 petent to offer even a suspicion of what may be the truth. 

 Philippar (in the work I have already referred to) alludes to an 

 opinion prevalent in some parts of the Continent, that bunt also is 

 occasioned by the presence of the berberry ; but he considers this 

 opinion to be without any sort of foundation, and that it had most 

 probably originated in the still more prevalent opinion in favour 

 of the mildew. He also admits the testimony to the latter fact to 

 be too strong for him absolutely to reject it, although he had 

 never himself been able to meet with sufficiently conclusive evi- 

 dence to convict the berberry. On the contrary, he states that 

 there are many instances in which he has seen hedges filled with 

 berberry, without the corn which was near them having sustained 

 the slightest injury. 



Hitcham, Bildeston^ Suffolk^ April 2, 1841. 



* The following case has been furnished me by Mr. W. Edmunds, of 

 Bovvers Farm, near Wantage : — " During my occupation of a farm at 

 Kelmscott, in Oxfordshire, I had a field which, when sown with wheat, a 

 certain part of it was generally infected with mildew. The field was sur- 

 rounded with a young and healthy quickset-hedge, with the exception of 

 about two hundred yards on the north-west side, which was an old hedge 

 with several berberry and other bushes, and some elm-trees. It is true ttie 

 current of air was somewhat impeded by the trees. On examining my 

 wheat about three weeks previous to its being ripe (now some years since), 

 I found that next to this hedge the wheat was considerably infected with 

 mildew. I then examined the remainder of the field, but found the injury 

 did not extend beyond about twenty yards from the hedge in question. 

 The berberry bushes being at some little distance from each other, I disco- 

 vered that the wheat-straw was more injured in the immediate vicinity of 

 each bush than at a distance. This led me to believe that the mischief was 

 occasioned by the berberry. I then directed one of my labourers to cut up 

 and remove all the berberry he could find in this hedge; v^-hile this was ni 

 operation, I took one of the largest bushes and placed it in the middle of the 

 field. On examining the wheat where the berberry had been placed previous 

 to reaping it, I found both the straw and grain for two or three yards round 

 evidently injured by mildew, but not to the extent as compared with the 

 part where the bushes had grown." — Ph. Pusey. 



