162 MICROSCOPIC FUKGI, 



CHAPTER XII. 



WHITE MILDEWS OR BLIGHTS. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the inconvenience to 

 ourselves of calling very different fungi by 

 the same common name of " mildew^''^ the popular 

 mind does not recog-nize tlie inconvenience,, since 

 it scarcely troubles itself to inquire wlietlier they 

 are not all the same thing. In obedience to this 

 custom, we again write of ^^ mildew,^'' or '^ blight," 

 as it is called in some districts, but of a very 

 different kind to that which is so detrimental to 

 growing crops of corn. In the present instance 

 k is our intention to illustrate a group of fungi 

 which are exceedingly common, and which differ 

 gi^eatly in appearance and structure from any to 

 which we have had occasion to allude. To obtain 

 a general knowledge of these forms let our reader 

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

 his fortune to dwell in the coXmtry, the walk of a 

 few yards will suffice. Let him examine this clump 

 more carefully, perhaps, than he has been ac- 

 customed to do, and we venture to predict that he 

 will find some of the leaves covered with what 

 appears to be a dirty white mould, or mildew 

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

 collected as carefuUy and conveyed to the microscope 



