90 MICROSCOPIC FTTNGI. 



CHAPTER VII. 



COMPLEX SMUTS. 



SOME of the microscopic fungi are the most 

 unpromising and uninteresting objects to the 

 naked eye which could well be imagined. No one 

 would suppose that the black dust so profusely- 

 shed in such genera as Ustilago and Polycystis 

 could be better than as much soot ; unless he has 

 learnt by experience not to judge by appearances, 

 but to suspend judgment until examination. The 

 axiom will sooner or later force itself upon all who 

 examine minute objects with the microscope, that 

 all organic nature, whether animal or vegetable, 

 increases in interest in proportion to the magnify- 

 ing power. Seen by the unaided eye, moulds are 

 all nearly alike, and they seem to be " moulds n 

 and nothing more. " Snmts," again, sometimes 

 attack one organ, and sometimes another, with 

 very little variation in colour ; and " rusts " are all 

 " only rusts " with a paler or more intense rusty 

 tint, until the marvellous combination of lenses, so 

 appropriately named a microscope, unfolds a new 

 world, and exposes its new inhabitants unparalleled 

 in the old world of larger life, in form, habit, deve- 

 lopment, and mystery. 



A very interesting, though small group of fungi, 



