USTILAGINEI. 



[ 666 ] 



USTILAGO. 



apothecia, which often have a ciliated mar- 

 gin. U. barbata is common on park-pales 

 and old trees, U. fiorida and jjlicata in simi- 

 lar situations, mostly in mountainous regions; 

 it is possible they are all forms of one spe- 

 cies. The pendulous, fibrillous thallus and 

 ciliated apothecia of U. barbata are very 

 characteristic. 



BiBL. Hook. Brit. Flor. ii. pt. 1. p. 230; 

 Schserer, Emcm. Crit. p. 3. 



USTILAGINEI.— A family of Coniomy- 

 cetous(?) Fungi related to the Uredinei, 

 generally distinguished by their growing in 

 the interior of the organs (especially the 

 ovaries and anthers) of Flowering Plants, 

 causing deformity, absorption of the internal 

 tissue, and its replacement by a pulverulent 

 substance consisting of the spores of the 

 Fungi. In the earlier stages, the infected 

 organ exhibits either a grumous mass, or an 

 interwoven filamentous mycelium from which 

 acrogenous spores arise; finally the myce- 

 lium disappears, and a dark-coloured (often 

 fcetid) powder remains, composed entirely of 

 the spores, which are simple or more rarely 



Fig. 786. Fig. 787. Fig. 788. 



Fig. 789. 



Fig. 790. 



Thecaphora deformans. 



Compound spores, entire and broken up. 



Magnified 46o diameters. 



compound (figs. 789, 790), i. e. several co- 

 herent within a common coat, at length free 

 (figs. 786-788), smooth, or unequally echi- 

 nate or reticulated. 



They are thus divided by Tulasne : — 



1 . Ustilaginei veri : 



Stroma at first mucilaginous or grumous- 

 mucous, entire, or soon broken up into 

 variously conglomerated masses, afterwards 

 divided into unappendaged spores ; few or 

 no filaments persistent. 



1. UsTiLAGO. Spores simple. 



II. Thecaphora. Spores compound. 



2. Tilletiei. Stroma composed of inter- 



woven fragile filaments ; spores acrogenous 

 on their ramules, hence often appendaged 

 when free. 



III. TiLLETIA. 



Polycystis, Lev. and Testicularia,}L\otsch, 

 are doubtful. Protomyces, Unger, is ap- 

 parently allied to Tilletia. 



The species of Ustilago are very numerous 

 (see Ustilago). The Thecaphorce are fewer 

 and more rare ; T. deformans is an Algerian 

 plant, infesting Medicago tribuloides. Til- 

 letia infests corn-grains and other grasses, 

 r. Caries being the Uredo Caries, D.C. and 

 U.fcetida, Bauer, forming the foetid blight 

 called Bunt, or pepper-brand, of corn (see 

 Tilletia). 



Tulasne has observed the germination of 

 the spores in some Ustilagines and in Til- 

 letia; they produce filamentous processes, 

 from which arise pedicels [basidia] bearing 

 minute ' sporidia,' as in the Uredinei. 



BiBL. Berk. Brit. Fl. (art. Uredo); Tu- 

 lasne, Ann. des Sc. nut. ser. 3. vii. p. 5 ; 

 ser. 4. ii. p. 157; DeBary, Brandpilze; Bauer 

 and Banks in Curtis's Pract. Obs. on Brit. 

 Grasses, London 1805; Unger, Exanthem. 

 Plant. 



USTILAGO, Fries.— A genus of Ustila- 

 ginei (Coniomycetous Fungi), forming smuts, 

 infesting the ears of corn and other grasses, 

 the ovaries and anthers of other Flowering 

 Plants, and in some cases the leaves and 

 stems of plants. The interior of the organ 

 infested by them presents at first a grumous- 



Fig. 791. 



Fig. 792. 



'M 



f\ 



i 



/ 



Fig. 791- Ustilago Carbo, on oats. Nat. size. 

 Fig. 792. Ustilago Carbo, on barley. Nat. size. 



mucous, whitish mass, which grows at the 



