RUST, SMUT, ETC. 131 



smut, is to wash off or kill the sporules of the fungus which ad- 

 here to the seed. Soaking in brine and chamber ley is a com- 

 mon artifice in Canada. The last named substance is very valu- 

 able as a quickener of germination when the moistened seed is 

 dried by means of sulphate of lime, or gypsum, or charcoal. 



232(a). The specific gra\-ity of the spores of smut is greater 

 than that of water, hence ivell washing in running water will re- 

 move a very large proportion of the spores ; this artifice is par- 

 ticularly to be recommended in preparing wheat for seed as a 

 forerunner of other modes of preparation. The rationale of the 

 use of lime and other alkalies is said to be based upon the for- 

 mation of a soap with the supposed oily matter which invests 

 the smut sporules, which then admits of their being washed off 

 by water. 



Uredo Fcetida. 

 Bunt — Stinking Rust — Pepper Brand. 



234. A fungus with a very peculiar and disgusting odour, fill- 

 ing the grains in which it has made a lodgment, and replacing 

 the stalk by a black mass of spores with their mycelium attach- 

 ed. Under a very powerful microscope, when magnified at least 

 one thousand times, the spores have been observed to burst and 

 emit a cloud of inconceivably minute sporules or pepper brand 

 seed. A grain of wheat may contain several million spores, but 

 the numbers of sporules contained in these intelligible niunbers 

 fail to express. 



235. The appearance of a grain affected by this fungus is 

 similar, as far as external form and colour is concerned, to that 

 of the sound grains until they approach maturity. The diseased 

 grain is then larger, move plvmip, and of a dark green colour, 

 and emits when broken a foetid smell. From the experiments of 

 M. Bauer, it is very probable that the sporules of this fungus 



