1^4 MICROSCOPIC FUNGI. 



CHAPTER XII. 



WHITE MILDEWS Oli BLIGHTS. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the inconvenience to 

 ourselves of calling very different fungi by 

 the same common name of "mildew," the popular 

 mind does not recognize the inconvenience, since 

 it scarcely troubles itself to inquire whether they 

 are not all the same thing. In obedience to this 

 custom, we again write of " mildew," or C( 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 

 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 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 country, 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 carefully and conveyed to the microscojDe 



