78 MICROSCOPIC FUXGI. 



into a Iieap of powder^ consisting of very regular 

 globules, perfectly alike, black, and just like tlie 

 reproductive bodies of other fungi (plate V. fig. 99). 

 A scientific botanist of some repute, M. Uuger, pub- 

 lished a work in Vienna during the year 1823, in 

 whicli lie sought to prove that this, and allied 

 species of fungi, were not fungi at all, but merely 

 broken up cells, or disruptured and altered condi- 

 tions of certain portions of the diseased plants. 

 The most satisfactory refutation of this theory may 

 be found in the fact that the spores of the smut can 

 be seen to germinate under favourable conditions, 

 and produce fruit, whereas, if they were only the 

 ordinary cells of the plant broken up by disease, 

 fructification would not take place. 



The spores in this species are exceedingly minute. 

 It has been ascertained that forty-nine of them 

 would be contained within a space the one-hundred- 

 and-sixty-thousandth part of a square inch ; hence 

 one square inch of surface would contain little less 

 than eight millions. These myriads of spores are 

 shed from the ears, and nothing remaius but the 

 barren matrix in which they were borne when the 

 farmer proceeds to gather in his crops. At that 

 time he sees no more of the ^^ smut,^^ all remem- 

 brance of it for the time is gone, his only thought 

 is to stack his corn in good condition. But the 

 milHons of spores are dispersed, ten millions at 

 least for every ear that has been '^ smutted," — and 

 Tvill they not many of them reappear next year. 



