Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, Vol. 61: For the Year 1936
As is well known, the main objective of our Society is the cultivation and study of the science of Natural History in all its branches. Many of these branches have claimed the attention of the occupants of the Presidential Chair in their addresses given in the years that have gone. Tonight it is intended to deal with certain aspects of what is often regarded as one of the newer branches of science, viz., Plant Pathology.
It is not without interest to recall that on the 25th February, 1880, Rev. J. E. Tenison-woods, then President of this Society, contributing a joint paper with Mr. F. M. Bailey entitled On some fungi of n.s.w. And Queensland, made the following statement: In conclusion, we beg to draw attention to the very great importance which the study of fungi possesses for a young country like ours, which depends so much upon its agriculture. Sad experience has taught us how its prospects may be injured by blight, mildews, smuts, rusts, etc. Little or nothing is known about the origin and spread of these terrible pests, and it is equally certain that if they were known they would in a measure be provided against. Although by many mycologists the polymorphy of these blights has been doubted, yet experience seems to have decided that a blight of one kind affecting one class of plants may be transformed into a mildew or rust amongst cereal crops. Then, after quoting experiments overseas which proved the connection of barberries and wheat rust, the President continued, In the locality referred to, the destruction of the barberry bushes has been the salvation of the crop.
Although so generally regarded as a. New science, it is seen that the importance of Plant Pathology in Australia was pointed out in this Society more than 50 years ago.
Actually it is a very old subject. As Whetzel (1918) points out, Plant Pathology, like the other natural sciences, had its beginning in the dawn of man's civilization. Wild plants, as well as those which have been brought under cultivation, are subject to disease, and from the earliest times when man set out to utilize plant products, he noticed that diseases robbed him of some or of all his labour. As the art of writing was acquired, he recorded his observations and Opinions respecting plant diseases.
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