Germination of TeletUospores of Ustilagine^e. 73 



until Brefeld,* in 1882, published his investigations, by 

 which it appears that the Ustilagineae are capable of per- 

 petuating themselves for long periods, outside and inde- 

 pendently of their host-plant, in the excreta of herbivorous 

 animals. It will be more convenient to describe the ger- 

 mination of the spores of the various Ustilagineae in detail, 

 as was done with their spore-formation. 



Much confusion exists in the works of various authors 

 who have written upon the subject, from the diverse appli- 

 cations to which the word " spore " has been made. For 

 instance, Cooke f speaks of the teleutospores of the Ustila- 

 gineae as pseudospores, which term he applies to the secidio- 

 spores, uredospores, and teleutospores of the Uredinese. 

 Again, these bodies are sometimes called conidia, which 

 term is applied by Brefeld to the secondary spores of the 

 Ustilaginese. In order to avoid confusion, it may as well 

 be stated at once that while the term " spore " may be 

 correctly applied to all the reproductive bodies possessed 

 by these fungi, in a general sense, yet it becomes necessary 

 to affix to it some qualifying word, such as teleuto-spore, 

 resting-spore, uredo-spore; promycelial spore, aecidio-spore, 

 and so forth. In speaking of the Ustilagineae, the word 

 " spore " has generally been applied to the perfect, last- 

 formed bodies — the teleutospores, analogous to the teleuto- 

 spores of the Uredineae ; those bodies, in fact, with which 

 we are all familiar as the black dust of bunt and smut. 

 These black teleutospores, when they germinate, protrude 

 a germ-tube — the promycelium. This promycelium bears 

 certain very small hyaline bodies, which are spores, and 

 may be fairly enough designated promycelial spores, inas- 

 much as they have been produced by the promycelium ; 

 as, however, the term " sporidia " is very commonly applied 



* Brefeld, " Hefenpilze." 1883. 



t Cooke and Berkeley, " Fungi," International Scientific Series, vol, 

 xiv. 1875. 



