EAR-COCKLES, PURPLES, or PEPPER-CORN, a disease in wheat, owing to the pres ence of vibrio tritlei, one of the infusoria. This is an animal of worm-like form, yellow ish-white, slender, tapering towards the tail, and more suddenly attenuated to a point at the head. Its minute eggs are supposed to be introduced into the sap of the wheat from infected seed, and so to find their way to the flowers, where they are hatched in the germen; the infected grains become dark green, then black, rounded like small pepper-corns, and furrowed on the surface; the glumes spread open, and the awns become twisted; the grains are filled with a white cottony substance, which at once dis solves in water, liberating the vibrio in great numbers. Henslow calculates that 50,000 of the young vibrio might exist in a grain of wheat. If the wheat is dried, the vibrio becomes dormant, but retains its vitality in this state for six or seven years, and is ready to revive on the application of moisture.
EARL (Aug.-Sax. eorl--a corruption of ealdor). The distinctive name of the noble amongst the northern races was earl, or jar/, as opposed to the mere freeman, the ceonl, or kart; from which latter name come the modern German word kerl, and the Scotch word earl. From indicating the whole noble class, the title of eorl among the Anglo Saxons, and perhaps generally among the Teutonic nations, came at first probably to be limited to those who were ealdors, or ealdormen, by office—that is to say, to those who were appointed to be at once governors and judges over a certain district, and to whom, according to Kemble (Saxons in England, ii. p. 126), the titles of dux, prineeps, and comes are indiscriminately applied by the Latin writers, the same officer being sometimes called by the one title, and sometimes by the other. Being thus limited to those who held the office of ealdors, the social not unnaturally came to be confounded with the official title, and hence the general error of tracing the word earl not to eorl, a noble, but to oaldor man, a title which Mr. Keinble prefers to translate by duke. The early relation which subsisted between the duke and the count has been explained under the former title.
In Europe generally, it was not till the count came to be recognized as a subordinate officer to the duke, governing a district of the province committed to the latter, that the earl assumed the position of the governor of a county, by the name of which he was commonly known. The title of duke, if it had ever existed, early disappeared in Eng land, and was not revived till the time of Edward III. After the Norman conquest, the French term count was substituted for earl; but it held its place only for a very short time as the title of the officer, though it has continued ever since to give a name to the district over which he presided, and a title to his wife. William the conqueror, after the battle of Hastings, recompensed his chief captains by granting to them the lands and offices of the Saxon nobles; but by making the title of earl hereditary, he took, unintentionally perhaps, the first step towards changing it from a title of office to a title of dignity, and thus depriving it of substantial, power. Deputies, or sher iffs, caine necessarily to be appointed in all cases in which the earl was a minor, or otherwise incapacitated from discharging the duties of the office, till gradually the office itself passed to the deputy; the dignity alone, with the hereditary privilege of sitting as a legislator in the house of lords, remaining with the principal. The form of crea tion of an earl formerly was by the king girding on his sword, and placing his coronet on his head, and his mantle on his shoulders; but earls are now created by letters-patent; and it is not unusual for them to depart so far from the old notion of their being terri torial officers, as to take as their titles their own names, with the prefix earl—e.g., earl Grey, earl Spencer, earl Russell, etc. At present, the number of earls, including the peerages of Scotland and Ireland, exceeds 200. See PEER.
The EARL'S CORONET is a circle of gold, rising at intervals into eight pyramidal points, or spikes, the tops of which are placed as many pearls, an.d which alternate with strawberry,.
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