1882.] FUNGI INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 157 



. SECOND DAY. 



The convention was called to order at 10.30 by Vice-Presi- 

 dent Hyde, who introduced as the lecturer Mr. Byron D. 

 Halsted, of the " American Agriculturist." 



FUNGI INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION, WITH REMEDIES. 

 By Dr. Byron D. Halsted, 



MANAGING EDITOK OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 



Fungi, the plural of fungus, is the name applied to a large class 

 of flowerless plants, of which the toadstools and mushroom are 

 the most conspicuous members. The group is very low, if not the 

 lowest, in the scale of vegetable life. Many of the fungi are ex- 

 ceedingly small and can only be seen with the higher powers of 

 the compound microscope. In some the whole plant is not more 

 than 1 -30000th of an inch in length. Many of the diseases of 

 an epidemic nature, among both animals and plants, are caused by 

 minute fungi; but before speaking of these I will endeavor to give 

 a general idea of this peculiar group, and show how its members 

 differ from other plants. 



Unlike ordinary plants, fungi have no leaves, stems, roots, flow- 

 ers, or seeds. Their structure is of the very simplest, being en- 

 tirely cellular; that is, made up of little cells or sacs. A ready 

 way to get some specimens of these peculiar plants for study is to 

 place a piece of bread or cake where it may be kept warm and 

 moist. In the wet weather of summer the housewife can often- 

 times provide the desired fungi in the form of mould, of which 

 many kinds develop on various foods with surprising rapidity. 

 They by no means confine themselves to articles of food. While 

 spending a summer at the sea shore, at the end of a week of very 

 warm and wet weather, I took my Sunday suit from the closet, and 

 found it covered from top to bottom with fine specimens of moulds; 

 even the insides of my boots were blue with a forest of fungi. 



When the mould first appears upon bread, it consists of a num- 

 ber of very minute threads, or filaments, much resembling a 

 spider's web, which extend over and through the bread. These 

 filaments increase in number until the whole surface is covered 

 with a white cottony coating. Each thread consists of long, 

 slender tubes, closed and joined end to end. These are the cells, 



