FUNGI. 255 



seemed more than ever probable. In about ten days 

 the spermogonia appeared. After a time the cut 

 leaves began to decay, so that the fungus never got 

 beyond the spermogonoid stage. Some three-year 

 old seedlings -were then taken, and the germinating 

 resting spores applied as before. The plants were 

 kept under a bell-glass from twenty-four to forty- 

 eight hours, and then exposed to the air like other 

 plants. From the sixth to the tenth day yellow spots 

 appeared with single spermogonia ; from the ninth 

 to the twelfth, spermogonia appeared in numbers on 

 either surface ; and in a few days later, on the under 

 surface of the leaves the cylindrical sporangia of the 

 ALcidimn made their appearance, exactly as in the 

 normally developed parasite, except that they were 

 longer, from being protected from external agents. 

 The younger the leaves the more rapid was the 

 development of the parasite, and sometimes in the 

 younger leaves the luxuriance was far greater than 

 in free nature. Similar plants, to the number of two 

 hundred, were observed in the nursery, and though 

 some of them had yEcidmm pustules, not one fresh 

 pustule was produced ; while two placed under similar 

 circumstances, but without the application of any 

 resting spores, remained all the summer free from 

 ^cidiumr ^ 



Rotting Moulds. 

 The most destructive moulds which attack living 



' Monatsber. Kon. Prettss Acad. Wiss, an Berlin, January, 1S65; 

 Jour. Roy, Ilori. Soc, vol. i. n.s. 107; "Fungi, their Nature, etc.," 

 p. 199. 



