Communications. 293 



only at one or two of the joints, causing a bending, so that the 

 stalk frequently reclines on the ground. Again, it seems to 

 take possession of the whole plant while it is still quite young, 

 and as a result there is only a dwarfed and rotten mass, but 

 a few inches above the surface of the soil. The greatest dam- 

 age is done when the thief takes possession of the kernels while 

 they are still quite young, transforming their tissue into its own 

 long mycelium threads, which at maturity produce, in infinite 

 numbers, the minute blackish spores. Frequently, only a few 

 of the grains are affected, making a striking contrast with 

 those of natural size. It was long supposed that this smut 

 •was a diseased state of the corn plant ; but there is no longer 

 reason to doubt that it is a small, dirty plant, growing at the 

 expense of one of the most useful members of the vegetable king- 

 dom. Vegetation and reproduction in these plants are reduced 

 to their simpler forms, and the space from the time when a spore 

 germinates to the time when spores are again formed may be re- 

 duced to weeks, and even days, instead of being months and 

 years as in plants of a higher and more complex organization. 

 The grains of corn that, to the naked eye, appear perfectly free 

 from the smut, may have their tissue interwoven with its mycelium 

 threads ; and when the grains thus affected are planted, the fungus 

 is planted with it, and as the corn plant grows so does the parasite, 

 until the presence of the latter becomes evident in its black, 

 dusty fruitage. This is one of the methods of propagation whicb 

 is of great importance to the existence of the smut plant. As 

 with the rust, there seems to be no available method of staying 

 its ravages when moist and warm weather comes at just that 

 season of the year best fitted for its rapid development. Still, 

 much could be done to reduce the number of its reproductive 

 bodies, by cutting off and burning the affected portions before 

 the smut plant has ripened its spores. Concerted action is re- 

 quired in a movement like this; and when farmers, as a whole, 

 see that it is for their interest to go through their fields of grow- 

 ing corn, and destroy this pest in its early stages of growth, we 

 can assure them that from that day on they will have more and 

 better corn for their labor. 



