fungi. 285 



used to the adjacent wall, or at any rate carried along 

 the street. But as we left the neighbourhood of houses, 

 and the lane became a real country lane, we still beheld 

 the marks of the whitewash ! On close examination we 

 found that this was a white epiphyte to which the 

 Shepherd's Purse was subject. 



Leaves of the Water Sweet grass growing beside 

 certain ponds at Hawkhurst, are marked with long sooty 

 lines accompanying the veins of the leaf, this is the 

 Elongated Ustilago, and is a fungus of decidedly bad 

 character. It propagates so quickly that one plant of it, 

 so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, will bring 

 forth forty seeds. These seeds float in the air, and soon 

 find homes on the stems and leaves of corn and grasses. 

 When first this blight appears, it is orange in colour, but 

 presently turns a rich brown, and then becomes black. 

 This introduces ns into that evil group, the St. Gileses of 

 the fungus kingdom, where the dangerous members of 

 the dust class are to be found. Here is Smut (U. sagetum), 

 which takes its rise within the glume of living plants, 

 and grows with such rapidity as speedily to fill the 

 interior, and burst through the skin, showing it self as 

 dirty black dust oozing forth. Withering describes this 

 as consisting " of very minute, egg-shaped stemless cap- 

 sules, at first white, but the thin white soon bursting, it 

 pours out a quantity of brown-black powder, mixed with 

 wool-like fibres." 



Bunt (U. caries), is the plague of wheat, as Smut is of 

 other cereals. It not only destroys the ear on which it 

 grows, but every grain that comes in contact afterwards 



