FUNGUS DISEASES 139 
early maturing of the plants (Fig. 46). Instead of 
the healthy green color there is a brown hue, as if 
insects had sapped the plants or frost destroyed their 
vitality. Rusted plants, when viewed closely, are 
found to have the skin of the stems lifted, as if blis- 
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7. 
a: 
ea: 
FIG. 47—PORTION OF RUSTED ASPARAGUS STEMS 
tered, and within the ruptures of the epidermis the 
color is brown, as shown in Fig. 47. The brown color 
is due to multitudes of spores borne upon the tips of 
fine threads of the fungus, which aggregate at certain 
points and cause the spots. The threads from which 
the spores are produced are exceedingly small and 
grow through the substance of the asparagus stem, 
