164 



iriCEOSCOPIC PUNGX. 



CHAPTER XII. 



WHITE MILDEWS OE BLIGHTS. 



■VfOTV^'ITHSTAXDIXG- tlie incoiivemence to 

 i,y ourselves of calling veiy different fungi by 

 the same common name of " mildew/^ tlie popular 

 mind does not recognize the inconvenience, siuce 

 it scarcely troubles itself to inquire whether they 

 are not all the same thing. In obedience to this 

 custom, we a^-ain write of '"''mildew.''^ or ^''blis'ht/* 

 as it is called in some district s, but of a very 

 different kind to that which is so detrimental to 

 growing crops of com. In the present instance 

 it is our intention to illustrate a group of fungi 

 which are exceedingly common, and which differ 

 greatly in appearance and structure from any to 

 which vre have had occasion to allude. To obtain 

 a creneral knowledo'e of these forms let our reader 

 proceed at once to a clump of rank grass ; if it is 

 Ms fortune to dwell in the country, the walk of a 

 few yards will suffice. Let him examine this clump 

 more carefully, perhaps, than he has been ac- 

 castomed to do, and we venture to predict that he 

 win find some of the leaves covered with what 

 appears to be a dirty white mould, or mildew 

 (plate XI. fi^. 235). One of these leaves should be 

 collected as carefully and conveyed to the microscope 



