286 



FUNGI. 



with the infected individuals. The 

 spores when crushed give forth a 

 disagreeable smell, and bunted 

 wheat used to be applied almost 

 entirely to the making of ginger- 

 bread, where the other condiments 

 employed disguised the unplea- 

 sant odour. 



The Buck-wheat has its smut 



2. GOOSEBERRY BLIGHT. 



3. bunt. (U. utriculosa), the Sage its smut 



All magnified. ("(j. urceolarum), and other plants 



are similarly endowed. 



Lest the reader should turn with disgust from the 

 whole class of Dust fungi because of these harmful 

 Uredos, we will introduce him to another member of the 

 class which we should have spoken of before had we not 

 wished to reserve it as a bonne bouche after the Smut 

 and Bunt. The Yeast plant (Torula cervisea, cut), 

 consists of round or oval cells ; these cells at first are 

 solitary, but within an hour of being placed in a good 

 habitat, other buds and cells have appeared ; in three 

 hours these are doubled : in eight hours branching cells 

 appear, then the mature cells explode, giving birth to 

 numerous young cells, and in three days threads and 

 branches are produced. Hogg, from whose work I have 

 taken this description, also mentions another stage of the 

 plant prevailing in porter vats, but as in this stage it is 

 not beneficial, but rather the contrary, we will not enter 

 into the elaborate discussion of it. But surely the wide- 

 spread utility of the Yeast plant, from which even the 



