State Museum or NATURAL History. 2% 
or less irregular and unsightly swellings or excrescences on the tassel 
or the ears of the corn. Very rarely these swellings occur on the stem 
and leaves also, but as a rule they occur on the tassels and ears and 
more often on the latter than on the former. ‘They are very variable 
in size and shape. Generally they range from the size of a hazel-nut 
to that of an ordinary apple. ‘They are soft to the touch and externally 
whitish and membranous, but they soon rupture and are then more or 
Jess stained by their own contents. The interior is composed of a 
shreddy mass of tissue filled in and covered over with a copious blackish- 
brown dust or powder that crocks the fingers in handling it or the 
clothes that brush against it. By microscopic examination this is 
found to be a mass of globular grains each one of which hasa diameter 
of about four ten-thousandths of an inch; that is, it would take two 
thousand five hundred of them when laid in a straight row in contact 
with each other to cover the space of oneinch. ‘The surface is covered 
with minute points or prominences which gives them a rough but 
pretty appearance under the microscope. These powdery grains are 
the spores, that is, the seeds of the fungus. There are thousands, 
perhaps millions of them in a single excrescence. Nature has thus 
made plentiful provision for the multiplication and spread of the 
fungus. This and other closely related fungi have been specially 
studied by Professor Fischer Von Waldheim who finds that the fungus 
enters the corn while yet young, tender and germinating. The spores 
of the fungus are scattered over the ground by the wind. They may 
then be carried beneath its surface by rain or water soaking into the 
ground or the farmer himself in preparing his ground and planting 
his seed may unwittingly plant beneath the surface the seeds of a crop 
offungi. If any of these spores happen to be in such a position that 
they come in contact with the young corn sprout inits upward growth 
they immediately send forth their growing filaments which penetrate 
the tender tissues of the young plant. When they have established 
themselves within the supporting plant they continue to live at its 
_ expense and grow with its growth, extending themselves upward 
through the stem as it elongates, until the proper time comes for them 
to break forth in excrescences and perfect a new crop of spores. 
It is characteristic of the smuts that they perfect. their spores in certain 
definite parts of the supporting plant, though their mycelial threads 
may pervade all parts of the plant. A few produce their spores in the 
leaves or on the stem, but most of them develop their fruit in the 
flowers or seeds of the host plant. A knowledge of this fact is impor- 
tant in case it is deemed desirable to attempt the destruction or extermi- 
nation of the parasite. It may serve as a guide te us in our search for 
the pest, informing us both as to the time when and the place where. 
In the case of the Indian corn smut it would be useless to look for it 
before the tassels appear. I am notaware that any experiments, made 
with the purpose to discover a remedy for this malady, have been 
successful. It is not probable that any external application will be of 
much avail, for the threads of the fungus are well protected by the 
surrounding tissues of the supporting plant. In this,asin so many 
other cases, prevention is better than cure. Although it. may not be 
possible wholly to prevent the attacks of this pest, yet it is reasonable 
