1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
131 
pear, it is almost invariably upon flax growing upon 
land that has been fertilized by artificial manuring. 
It would hence seem that a rank, luxuriant growth, 
such as an unduly rich soil produces, was a promi¬ 
nent exciting cause of this malady. Crops of flax, 
moreover, that are unusually late, seldom escape. 
Gen. McNaughton, of Salem, relates to me a nota¬ 
ble instance, illustrating this fact. An old resident 
in his neighborhood, though a very worthy citizen, 
was always behind-hand with his work, so that he 
was never known to get his flax sown until some 
time in the month of May; and he was never known 
to have a crop but what was badly rusted—-this dis¬ 
ease commonly making its access after the patches 
of flax on the adjoining farms had all been pulled. 
It is a little before the flax is gathered, that this 
malady usually makes its appearance. The earlier 
the attack, the greater is the injury. If it does not 
come on until just as the flax is being pulled, it is 
believed that it causes but slight damage. It comes 
in the form of black spots, looking as though a small 
drop of tar or some such substance, had previously 
been put upon the stem, and had spread out into a 
thin pellicle, concreting upon and adhering to the 
surface. If these spots have any different appear¬ 
ance in the incipient stages of their formation, none 
of my informants have observed it. They appear 
mostly upon the upper and branching parts of the 
stalk, but are sometimes scattered along its whole 
length,* and wherever one of these spots appear, it 
rots off and destroys that part of the fibres of the flax 
with which it is in contact. If the spots are only at 
the top of the stalk, the injury is but slight; but when 
a solitary spot occurs any where near the middle of 
the stalk,every fibre with which it is in contact is lost; 
for the reason that, when the flax comes to be dres¬ 
sed, as it is held under the knives of the dressing 
machine, the upper part of all those fibres which 
have been cut asunder by the rust-spot, is whipped 
out among the tow; and when the operator turns 
the handful to dress its opposite end, the remaining 
part of these same fibres is similarly taken away. 
Hence a spot of this mildew reaching half round a 
stalk near its middle, occasions a loss of half the 
fibres in the stalk ; and this seems the more lament¬ 
able, because these wasted fibres are good flax, ex¬ 
cept the minute portion that was covered by the rust. 
As an example of the loss that is sometimes expe¬ 
rienced from this cause, the following may be rela¬ 
ted. Anson Collins, of Jackson, in 1846, sowed an 
acre of flax beside his barn, where the soil, it is 
evident, would be in a high condition as to fertility. 
It grew finely, and from its thrifty appearance, 
there was no doubt it would have yielded over two 
hundred pounds of dressed flax. But the rust inva¬ 
ded it, and from this cause alone, forty pounds was 
the entire product of the piece. 
I have had no opportunity of seeing this disease in 
the growing flax. A few specimens of it, however, 
found after much search upon dried flax, are now 
before me. These, I am assured, exhibit perfectly 
the usual appearance of this disease. The spots 
are about one-fourth of an inch in length, and reach 
about half way around the branches of the stalks 
on which they occur. They are of a coal-black co¬ 
lor, their edges well defined and visibly elevated 
above the level of the contiguous bark. A magni¬ 
fying glass shows that the epidermis or thin outer 
bark is unbroken, but is merely raised up, as it were 
in a blister, which has become black and gangrenous. 
There is no doubt, therefore, that these specimens 
are immature, and that had the flax stood a few 
days longer, the epidermis would have been rup¬ 
tured. Enough, however, is shown by them to 
clearly indicate the nature of this disease. It is 
obviously a parasitic fungus of the group Caeoma- 
ceje, or dust Fungi, of naturalists; and though its 
generic marks cannot be fully seen in these speci¬ 
mens, I have scarcely any hesitation in referring it 
to the genus Puccinia. In all the points of its his¬ 
tory as above narrated, the reader will have per¬ 
ceived a close analogy between this and the common 
grain-rust, (Puccinia graminis of authors,) which 
so frequently attacks our oats, wheat, &,c. But this 
flax-rust is evidently a distinct species from the 
grain-rust. All the best authorities discountenance 
the idea that the grain-rust ever attacks any plants 
except those pertaining to the grain and grass fami¬ 
lies. That appears, moreover, in the form of long, 
narrow spots, whilst here the spots are broad, oval, 
and with rounded, or irregularly sinuated ends. 
The characters herewith adduced are ample for dis. 
tinguishing this species from the grain-rust, and 
from the*several other species of blight and mildew 
of which I have any knowledge.* The name Puc¬ 
cinia Lini, literally meaning the rust of flax , is 
therefore proposed for this species, and a more de¬ 
finite description of its structure is reserved, until 
it has been examined in its growing and matured 
state. 
To render this subject more plain to the general 
reader, it may be observed, that the rust-spots on 
flax, as on other plants, are occasioned by clusters 
or tufts of exceedingly minute mushrooms, which 
take root among the fibres of the inner bark, and by 
their growth raise up and distend the epidermis un¬ 
til it bursts; whereupon their seeds escape and float 
off in the atmosphere, or settle to the ground. How 
these nearly infinitesimal seeds find their way into 
the plant, to there vegetate, is not conclusively as¬ 
certained. The most plausible supposition appears 
to be, that they are disseminated in the soil, from 
whence they are imbibed by the roots of the plant, 
and are carried upwards by its juices, until they 
reach the appropriate places for them to grow. 
Drawing their nourishment from among the fibres 
of the flax, that portion of these fibres which is thus 
exhausted, withers and decays. Yet if the fungi 
have only commenced growing when the flax is pull¬ 
ed and dried, their further growth is arrested, and 
the fibres in which they have nestled are then but 
slightly disorganized. 
From the facts that have now been related, it ap¬ 
pears that the main safeguard against this malady, 
is early sowing upon ground that is not fertile to 
excess, especially from raw animal manures. 
Where, from the vigorous growth of the flax, 
there is reason to fear it may be invaded by the rust, 
as the period for gathering it approaches, it should 
be closely watched, and that part of the field parti¬ 
cularly examined where the crop is most luxuriant. 
And if it is discovered at any time that this blight 
is making its appearance upon the stalks so as to 
threaten serious injury, the crop should be pulled 
and dried without delay. Thus the loss which is 
otherwise inevitable, maybe averted. There is but 
one consideration that will cause any one to hesi¬ 
tate in adopting this course, and that is the dimin¬ 
ished amount of seed that is liable to be obtained if 
the crop is prematurely gathered. The rust, how¬ 
ever, does not commonly make its appearance until 
* How numerous are the kinds of rust, blight, smut, fee., which 
infest the vegetation of this country, is indicated by the fact, that 
that distinguished botanist, the late Rev. L. de Schweinitz, in his 
“ Synopsis of North American Fungi,” published in the Transac¬ 
tions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. iv, pp. 141—316, 
enumerates as known to him, forty-two species of Puccinia , and a 
yet larger number pertaining to each of the allied genera, Uredo and 
JEcidium 
