REPORTS OF AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 265 



country between Saiulnsky and Cleveland was visited by numerous sliowers 

 between the 10th and 2iJlh of July, J8T9; the consequences were, that they 

 lost nearly their entire crop of Concords as well as Catawbas." These descrip- 

 tions, and others that have been given, indicate the presence of a fungus; it 

 does not appear, however, that its accurate determination, based upon micro- 

 scopical examination, has been made. According to Mr. Townsend, of Isle St. 

 George, pure flowers of sulphur, mixed with finely ground land plaster, one-third 

 sulphur to two-thirds plaster, applied with a bellows every two weeks, is a com- 

 plete preventative of the disease. Others have found little manila bags pinned 

 over the clusters of grapes an efticient protection. 



A number of other fungi occur in this country upon both cultivated and 

 indigenous grape-vines, all requiring more thorough investigation of their 

 nature and habits. It is desirable that specimens intended for microscopical 

 examination should be gathered in different stages of the disease, placed at 

 once in alcohol, and properly labeled. In this way the fungus can be examined 

 and its identification attended by much less liability to error than when dried 

 specimens only are sent. 



RUSTS AND SMUTS. 



To another and very different group of fungi belong a large number of 

 species popularly designated as "rusts" and "smuts." They ought, perhaps, 

 to be placed under two separate classes, and, in fact, are usually classified in 

 this Avay, under the distinct names cfUredineae (rusts) andUstilagine^ (smuts). 

 The former include the rusts on wheat, raspberries, and a great variety of 

 cultivated plants, appearing early in the summer as bright red or orange spots 

 made up of a multitude of dusty high-colored spores, and later in the year as 

 dark brown or black spots whose spores are less easily detached, and when 

 examined microscopically are seen to have the hard, dark-colored, firm, cell- 

 wall that is characteristic of resting-spores. These, as in the case of the rest- 

 ing-spores already described as occurring in the grape lea^, remain through the 

 winter in the stem or other part of the plant where they are produced, ready 

 to germinate in the spring. Although the species of rusts are very numerous 

 and conspicuous, a comparatively small number attack shrubs or trees, by far 

 the greater part being found on the stems and leaves of herbaceous plants, 

 many of which are greatly injured by their presence. 



The rust on wheat is of great practical interest as seriously affecting our 

 most important grain crop. For this reason it has for many years been the 

 subject of special study on the part of botanists, and the general facts of its 

 life history are believed to .be established with a fair degree of certainty, though 

 they have. been the occasion of much dispute, even down to the present time. 

 According to the observations of those who have studied the subject most care- 

 fully, the rust on wheat is only one stage of development of a fungus that 

 lives a part of the year on wheat and other grasses, while in another stage of 

 growth it appears on the common bari^erry, a shrub that has been introduced 

 into this country from the old world and is now widely distributed tlirough 

 the older portions of the United States. The familiar form of the rust seen at 

 harvest time is succeeded by the resting-spoies of the same fungus which appear 

 at the surface of the stalk in late summer and autumn in slender black lines 

 that can be seen by examining the straws on almost any piece ot stubole or in 

 ■the straw-stack. These resting-spores remain dormant through the winter, 

 ready to germinate under favorable conditions in the spring. Ln germination 

 they produce numerous small, light bodies that are borne by the wind or other 



