503 NEW JEESEY AGKICULTURAL COLLEGE 



Death is diu' to a paralysis of the hings, l)\it fortunately hut few cases 

 are fatal.'' 



The general a])pearance of the hlack night-shade is to he obtained 

 from Fig. 2 in Plate IX. 



Slime-Molds Upon Crop Plants. 



There is a group of organisms that, in the latest systems of classi- 

 fication, lies very close to the line separating plants and animals, 

 namely, the Myxomycetes or Slime-Molds. In their growing condi- 

 tion the members of this group are soft like jelly, and capable of 

 movement, from which the common name slime is derived. After 

 this amoeboid stage is passed the slime changes into a very different 

 condition, in which the spores are produced. It is on account of the 

 method of reproduction that the slime-molds are generally considered 

 as fungi. 



In germination the contents of many spores unite to form the 

 slime, often- masses of considerable size, which lives ordinarily in 

 moist, shady places, as under rotting logs and decaying leaves in the 

 wood-lot. When the time comes for the stage of reproduction to l)e 

 assumed the jelly-like masses often creep into the light and upon the 

 upper side of logs, stumps and other objects. Such kinds of slime- 

 molds do not feed upon living plants, and their presence upon grow- 

 ing leaves and stems only means that they accept what may b" in 

 their path. 



Every little while specimens of these slime-molds are received at 

 the Exjieriment Station, sometimes with questions that suggest alarm 

 upon the part of the correspondents. The last box of these strange 

 plants exhibited samples of strawberry leaves that were covered with 

 a species kindly determined by Professor MacBride as Diachca leuco- 

 podia (Bull.), who says of it in his book:* '"A very beautiful species; 

 not uncommon in the Eastern States; rare west of the Mississippi. 

 This species, as the Diacheas, generally aifects fallen sticks and leaves 

 in orchards and forests, and even spreads bodily over the foliage and 

 stems of living plants." 



That the general reader may be further acquainted with this pe- 

 culiar plant, the engraving is presented (Plate X., left hand), which 

 shows a portion of a strawberry leaf as bearing the sporiferous form 

 of this slime-mold. 



*The North American Slime-Molds, pages 134-135. 



