178 THE CARNATION MANUAL. 



to describe its appearance to the eye, or under an 

 ordinary magnifying glass. 



The iUustration given may lead some readers to 

 suppose that the appearance of this fungus has 

 something in common Avith that of Uredo dianthi 

 or the Avell-known Carnation " Spot." 



There is, however, no possibility of confounding 

 the two. The colour alone of the Helminthos- 

 porium is sufficient to identify it. 



Its first appearance is indicated by a small livid 

 protuberance, not perhaps a thirtieth of an inch in 

 diameter, like a little boil or blister. This rapidly 

 assumes the appearance of a small dark spot, which 

 might escape any gardener's attention. When 

 examined, however, with a strong magnifying glass, 

 it will be found that the boil has burst across, and 

 is full of myriads of small chocolate-coloured spores 

 which are rapidly dispersing round the protuber- 

 ance. This may now well be likened, in extreme 

 miniature, to the fungus everyone has seen in 

 meadows, commonly called " a powder pufF." 



The mischief rapidly spreads into patches, 

 generally of oval form, covering, perhaps, the whole 

 width of the leaf These are, however, by no means 

 necessarily oval in form. We were examining but 

 a few days since some specimens which had spread 

 about the leaf in irregular shapes of no describable 

 form. 



The colour (chocolate) and the visible palpable 



