100 A PLAIN AND EASY ACCOUNT 



an outer peridium, either open or closed ; this outer 

 peridium constituting the nest, and the compacted 

 masses of spores the eggs. This little order has not 

 more than four representatives in Britain. 



DUST-LIKE FUNGI. 



THE third group, or family, termed Coniomycetes, 

 consists of dust-like fungi in which the prominent 

 feature is the spores. The mycelium is often obsolete 

 and the threads short ; they are in some instances 

 naked, and in others inclosed. The spores are large in 

 proportion to the rest of the plant, and extremely abun- 

 dant. We shall not attempt to characterize the different 

 divisions of this group, containing, as it does, objects so 

 minute and uninteresting to the general observer. There 

 are, however, some few facts which, even in a work of 

 this description, deserve to be recorded. 



One section of this family includes the numerous 

 species of rust and mildew which are found all over the 

 world as parasites upon flowering plants. It was 

 doubted at one time whether these were plants at all, 

 and now that they are acknowledged as members of the 

 vegetable kingdom, are very much despised and neglected. 

 They may not present such beauties of form and colour 

 as to enchant the fashionable collector, or induce him to 

 stroll into the country in search of them ; but the agri- 

 culturist views them as amongst the pests of the farm, and, 

 if for no other reason, they deserve to be better known. 



The Puccinicei are developed on almost every 



