ANNUAL WINTER MEETING AT WARRENSBURG. 239 



Below is a tabular arrangement of the seven divisions : 



f Kingdoms : 

 Organic world. < Animal, 



( Vegetable. 



Protophyta^ 

 Zygosporece^ 



Oosporece, \Yung{. 

 Carposporece., ) 

 Bryophyta^ 

 Pter'idophyta, 

 Phanerogamia' 



The several examples given are by no means types of their re- 

 spective divisions, we merely mention them because most of you are 

 familiar with them. 



Keturning to the discussion of the fungi proper, we will first speak 

 of the fungal diseases, commonly known as mildews. 



Mildew is a loose term and is used to designate a number of fungal 

 diseases. The gardner has his mildewed roses, verbenas, etc. The 

 housewife her mildewed linen. The shoemaker his mildewed leather, 

 and so on. 



• Of the many destructive mildews, that which occurs on the foliage 

 of the grape vine, and known as the American grape mildew, is the 

 most common. As many of you know we have two diseases of the 

 vine differing materially from each other, and both are known under 

 the name of mildew. They resemble each other very little, and with 

 a little study it is quite an easy matter to distinguish one from the 

 other. 



The first is known to botanists as Peronos2)ora viticola, (American 

 grape mildew) ; this fungus appears herein Missouri about the mid- 

 dle of July. Most of you are no doubt familiar with the spotted dis- 

 torted leaves that appear as if they had received a sprinkling of hot 

 water. 



If we carefully examine one of these spotted leaves, we will find 

 on the under side of the leaf, opposite the spots on the upper side, 

 little tufts of a white, frost-like substance. Under the microscope 

 this white, frost-like substance, has the appearance of a miniature 

 crystaliue forest; bundles of delicate branching threads appear, and 

 on the extremities of many of the branches small globular bodies can 

 be seen. The small globular bodies called conidia serve to propagate 

 the fungus during the summer ; the little white tuits visible on the ex- 

 terior of the leaf are the stalks that serve to support the co/^^W^(^ or 

 summer spores. The vegetative body of the fungus called mycelium^ 

 is internal, and the branches which bear the conidia reach the surface 

 through the breathing pores of the leaf. 



The mycelium spreads through the tissue of the leaf, and obtains 



