1888.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 121 



damp weather, and the purplish black smut-spores give place to innumerable 

 quantities of these excessively small, ti'ansparent, spore-like bladders. 



It is a remarkable fact that these buds from smut-spores cannot be distin- 

 guished under the microscope from yeast. They are capable of growing and 

 multiplying for an indefinite period of time in this yeast-like condition. 

 Yeast being a fungus, observers are not wanting who say that germinated 

 smut-spores are not only like yeast, but that they are yeast itself. Whether 

 this is correct is uncertain, but the fact remains that yeast and germi- 

 nated smut appear identical. Both excite alcoholic fermentation. Smut- 

 spores which have germinated in the fields lead a non-parasitic life in and on 

 the ground. It is remarkable that the yeast-like buds from smut-spores are 

 not only capable of producing a vast number of other yeast-like buds, but 

 some of these buds, probably influenced by external dry or other conditions, 

 produce, on germination, extremely fine attenuated threads, as illustrated at 

 7n and n. These attenuated threads are also produced on and in the ground, 

 and thev secure access to cereals in the following manner : — 



After the seeds of wheat, oats, and barley have been planted, the first gi"een 

 leaf from the seed speedily appears above the ground. In order to perform 

 its vital functions, every leaf is furnished on its under surface with an im- 

 mense number of minute orifices, which lead direct to the inner substance 

 of the leaf. Through these little openings (stomata), the plant parts with 

 moisture in the form of fine vapor. In damp weather every little opening 

 or mouth stands wide open. At the same time, the yeast-like buds belonging 

 to the smut-fungus are protruding their fine threads, as at tn and n^ upon the 

 ground. These threads come in contact with the first young leaves of cereals, 

 and enter among the tissues of the infant plants of wheat, oats, and barley 

 by the minute open mouths or organs of transpiration belonging to the back 

 of the leaves. When the fine smut-threads are once within the substance ot 

 the young cereals, they are in their natural position. They speedily find 

 their way to the 3'oung stems, and, as the stems grow, the fungus grows too, 

 and is carried up by the growing stems. When the ear or panicle is formed, 

 all its parts, including the finest stalks, are invaded by the fungus, and in 

 these parts of the plant it matures and produces its innumerable black seeds 

 or spores which burst through the plant from its apex. From this position 

 they once more reach the air and the ground. 



In waste places the smut-fungus grows on a considerable number of wild 

 grasses, such as darnel and the various wild oat, barley, and rye grasses. It 

 can grow on no other plants except cereals and grasses. 



Studies for Beginners. — III. 



By H. L. OSBORN. 



THE VINEGAR EEL. 



A letter from a correspondent asking how to mount vinegar eels has sug- 

 gested the topic for a third of these studies — the vinegar eel, Angnillula 

 acitc. The owner of a microscope, desirous of using it, can find material for 

 study and observation everywhere. The old oaken bucket that hangs in the 

 well, or the filth in the kitchen sink, a bit of the deal wood of the kitchen 

 table, or the scraping from a surface of the skin will furnish, any one of them, 

 abundant material for an hour of work, and would busy an expert for many 

 months. 



There is also an interesting object in the bottom of your vinegar cruet. 



Go about the work thus : — First, be sure you have within easy reach the fol- 

 lowing utensils : — 



