fhe Ailaclcs of Insects and Fungi. 221 
market purposes. At present no important attempts have been 
made to stay the advances of this fungus ; applications of 
sulphate of copper have been strongly recommended,' but no 
records of experiments made with this have as yet been received. 
This onion disease is very rife in the Canary Isles and in 
Bermuda, where onion culture is one of the principal industries. 
Mr. Shipley, in a report upon this disorder in Bermuda, 
states that a mixture of freshly burnt quicklime and sulphur 
has been applied with much advantage, and that solutions of 
sulphate of iron kill the fungus without injuring the onion 
plants. - 
Incalculable losses were sustained by the coffee-planters in 
Ceylon through the fungus Hemileia vastatrix before men- 
tioned. This appeared suddenly about the year 1876. Mr. 
Marshall Wai'd, in his report upon this to the Ceylon Govern- 
ment in 1881, proved beyond doubt that the disorder was 
communicated by the spoi-es of the fungus conveyed by the 
wind. He placed strips of glass covered with glycerine at some 
distance from infected coffee plants, and found spores of the 
fungus imbedded in the glycerine, which proved that they were 
carried by the air. Many other experiments confirmed the con- 
clusion that the wind conveyed the spores over considerable 
distances. Innumerable spores in all stages of freshness and decay 
were observed in the meshes of some canvas exposed among the 
coffee plants for several months.' Mr. Marshall Ward believed 
that the intervention of forest-land, which prevented the spread 
of the spores by the wind, had preserved certain coffee planta- 
tions from infection. 
Among other fungi injurious to crops are the " smut " or 
"brand" of wheat (Ustilago segetum) and "bunt" {TiUetia 
caries), which are checked by steeping the seed wheat in sulphate 
of copper solutions. Rust (Puccinia graminis), very prevalent 
in some seasons, is difficult to combat, and but little has been 
attempted in this country in order to prevent it. In Australia 
it is becoming most destructive, and has, it is said, already 
caused a loss of 2,500,000L An Intercolonial Conference upon 
this serious affection of the wheat crop met at Melbourne in 
March 1890, and recommended each of the Australian Govern- 
ments to institute experiments in various directions. 
' Third Annual Report of the Agricultural Adviser to the Board of Agri- 
culture (1890). 
* Seport by Mr. A. Shipley on the Onion Disteaxe in the Bermudas. Kew 
Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information. October, 1888. 
' Report on the Coffee-leaf Disease. By H. Marshall Ward, Cryptogamist 
to the Ceylon Government (1881). 
