BLIGH

William, a navigator who has acquired considerable celebrity, from having been the commander of the ship Bounty when the crew mutinied in the South Seas and carried her off. She had been fitted out for the purpose of procuring plants of the bread-fruit tree, and introducing these into the West Indies. Bligh, who had sailed with Captain Cook, obtained the command, and in December, 1787, left Spithead for Otaheite, where he arrived, and remained till April, 1789. Having loaded his ve el with plants, he set sail, and was proceeding on his voyage for Jamaica when he was seized in bed, bound, and brought on deck. The launch was lowered, and Bligh, with eighteen men supposed to be well affected to him, were forced into it, with no other provision than 150 lbs. of bread, 32 lbs. of pork, a little rum and wine, and 28 gallons of water. Thus scantily provided they found themselves in the open sea^ not far from the island of Tofoa^ in lat. 19 8. and Ion. 184** s., and managed, by admirable skill and perseverance, though not wiUkout enduring fearful hard a hip a, to reach the island of Timor in forty-one days, after miming nearly 4000 miles, without the lo V0L.L of a single man. Ultimately twelve of the number reached England. Of these Bligh was one, and in a se<Sdhd voyage accomplished the object of the first by giving the bread-fruit tree to the West India Islands. This is not the place to detail the future history of the mutineers; but when several of them were afterwards tried at Portsmouth, sufficient evidence was led to show that Bligh himself was not free from blame, and had on many occasions been too much inclined to play the tyrant. This feature in his character was afterwards manifested on a larger scale. In 1806 he was appointed governor of New South Wales, and conducted himself so harshly and illegally, that the other authorities interfered and put a summary stop to his government by placing him under arrest. He died in 1817« BLIGHT, a generic name commonly applied to denote the effects of disease or any other circumstance which causes plants to wither or decay. It is usually considered as arising from the atmosphere, and to be extremely sudden in its operations, but this popular notion must be allowed to be fallacious, for close observation will generally show that the mischief has been some tune in progre . Peculiar conditions of the atmosphere may have concurred to increase the malady, so as to cause it to attract at a particular period general observation; but that is a different point, and one the force of which it is easy to appreciate. These observations are applicable to different forms of mildew, rust, the ravages of minute moulds, and of some destructive insects; but doubtle there are phenomena in the vegetable world dependent on oosmical conditions, which may properly be considered blight^ acoordhig to the popular notion of the phrase. These arise sometimes directly from drought, especially on stiff clay land, accompanied more or le by weakne of constitution, or from want of vigour or maturity in the seed. It is not unusual to see in a corn-field, where the greater part of the crop is healthy, certain plants in greater or le abundance, which, from the very first, betray a want of constitution by their pale and consumptive aspect. This occurs not only in the cereal crops, but also in other plants whid i occupy the attention of the agriculturist. There is no fux^fus nor insect at work, but the seeds of consumption are deeply seated, and seldom fail to break forth ere the plant attain maturity. Sometimes the blight a umes the form of dark charred patches on the leaves or stem, which in some instances arise from the presence of parasitic fungi, but frequently exhibit no traces of them. Sometimes, under every advantage of good cultivation, and without any fault in the seed, crops win still wear a blighted aspect. This arises usually from the balance of circumstances favourable to healthy vegetation not being kept up; and on their restoration to an equilibrium, unle the untoward conditions have been too long maintained, all is right again. There are some forms of blight which it is extremely difficult to understand, but which seem connected in greater or le degree with the attacks of aphides. In these cases, as in the peach-tree, the tender ti ues of the leaves are pretematurally developed, and in consequence the leaves are curled and bloated, and ultimately nourish a host of plant lice. In some cases it is uncertain whether the succulent leaves attract the aphides, or whether the hypertrop)iy itself does not arise from the puncture of an insect. It must also be mentioned that there is frequently not a trace of aphides where a tree is one ma of deformity from its curled and bloated leaves. Finally, there is a kind of blight sometimes very prevalent, which has been referred to fungi, but which is, in fact, nothing more than an exce ive 88 development of the epidermal cells, which are no longer kept within bounds by the real cuticle. 18 yeiy common in Tines, and the leaves of the thorn are frequently distorted and cnimpled them, espedslly at the maigin. It is probable in such cases no material injury occurs to the further than diverting the enefgies which shocdd employed in producing seed. 239