ABSTRACT
Plant diseases have been recognized for centuries. The ancient Romans worshipped Robigus, the god of wheat, and sacrificed red dogs to him at the Robigalia to save the grain from the destructive red dust. The idea of Divine punishment for human sins, as evidenced by the occurrence of plant disease and the resulting human suffering, is very old. People blamed diseases on evil spirits, displeasure of the gods, or unfavorable positions of the stars or moons. The nineteenth century is characteristically the age of the pathogen when the pathogenicity, first of fungi, then of bacteria, and at the turn of the century of viruses, was recognized and studies were made of the development and life histories of pathogens for their own sake. Plant pathology was of European origin.
