CLASS III. ORDER II. J 



TRITICUM- 159 



Fungi, known by the names of blight, mildetv, bunt, &c., which pro- 

 duce great injury, not only in diminishing the quantity, hut also in 

 deteriorating the quality, of the produce. Uredo Caries, known to the 

 farmer by the names of canker-brand, balls, bladder or pejjper-brand, 

 stinking brand, and bunt, is distinguished by the intolerable stench which 

 it gives out when crushed. 1 1 has been found hitherto to attack only the 

 ears of Wheat, and is the most injurious of this tribe of parasitical 

 fungi. It carries on its destructive operations secretly, and often com- 

 pletes its work without creating in the mind of the owner any suspicion 

 of its presence; for there are no external changes effected in the grain, 

 with the exception of making them a little rounder, so that a botanical 

 eye is necessary to its detection. When the ears are thrashed or 

 bruised, however, the ravages which these secret plunderers have made 

 will be apparent, not only by their fetid smell, but the whole farina of 

 the grain will be found to be destroyed, and its place occupied by a 

 dense blackish-brown mass, composed of an immense number of mi- 

 nute globular fungi : so minute are these plants, that it is computed 

 by Bauer that " no less than two millions five hundred and sixty thou- 

 sand individual fungi would be required to cover one square inch." 



U. segetum, the smut or dust-brand, attacks indiscriminately the ears 

 of corn and various grasses, doing great injury to the crops, like the 

 former species, by destroying the fruit. Fig. 215. represents an ear of 

 Barley affected by U. segetum, with a section of one of the grains in a 

 young state. This species is readily distinguished from the last by its 

 want of smell, its bursting through and destroying the glumes, and the 

 smaller size of the fungi, for Mr. Bauer states that " no less than seven 

 millions eight hundred and forty thousand would be required to cover 

 the same space" as U, Caries. Each of the fungi appears, when 

 highly magnified, to consist of an external membrane or tunic of a 

 reticular texture, and containing within it a vast number of sporules, 

 — according to the calculation of Fries, upwards of ten millions, — and 

 each of these sporules or seeds are capable of reproducing the plant — a 

 division so infinite in living organised matter, as cannot but create in 

 our minds feelings of wonder and astonishment at the means adapted 

 by the Great Author of Universal Nature to accomplish his purposes. 



Many laborious experiments and researches have been made by the 

 late Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Bauer, M. Fee, and others, to elucidate the 

 history of these extraordinary parasitical plants, from which it appears 

 that the reproductive contents of the fungi are absorbed by the roots of 

 the growing grasses, together with the water and other matter from the 

 soil in which they are grown, and conveyed through the sap-vessels 

 into various parts of the plant. Such being the case, the judicious 

 cultivator will guard against the evil by an appropriate rotation of 

 crops, a careful choice of seed, and by the use of those means, both as 

 manure to the land and " dressing" for the seed, which have been 

 found to destroy the sporidia : for this purpose, lime and its solutions 



