36 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



its place to fill it, the result would be 1,562,500,000,000,000,000 

 (oue quiutilliou, five hundred and sixty -two quadrillions, five 

 hundred trilUons) spores, which ma}" be looked upon as its descen- 

 dants for the season. Or giving each inhabitant of the globe his 

 equal share of these reproductive bodies, he would have nearly as 

 man}' as there are individuals in the whole human race. This may 

 seem like a very large story about a ver}^ small matter ; but it is 

 not the only wonderful truth the microscope has revealed. 



It is much easier to tell in what rust consists than how to avoid 

 it. Knowing the nature of the plant, and that in one of its stages 

 it grows upon the barberry, the cutting away of all barberr}' bushes 

 may do much to check 'this unwelcome j)est, if not to improve the 

 landscape and the general appearance of the farmers' boundary 

 lines. As to the best time to sow a crop to avoid the rust, little 

 information can be given. Sow when you would expect the best 

 returns were there no such thing as rust. Many trials have been 

 made of soaking seeds in various chemical solutions before sowing, 

 but, from the nature of the parasite, little good is to be hoped for 

 from such a practice. Until the weather is under man's control 

 we cannot hope to eliminate the conditions for the rapid develop- 

 ment of rust, causing, as it will, a partial or entire failure of the 

 grain crop. 



The Ustilago maydis, generally known as Corn Smut, is another 

 of these microscopic plants which often grows in fields of maize- 

 Though less prevalent than the rust, it is, like that, a sworn enemy 

 of the agriculturist. Sometimes it makes its appearance only at 

 one or two of the joints, causing a bending, so that the stalk 

 frequently rechnes on the ground. Again, it seems to take pos- 

 session of the whole plant while it is still quite young, and as a 

 result there is only a dwarfed and rotten mass, but a few inches 

 above the surface of the soil. The greatest damage is done when 

 the thief takes possession of the kernels while they are still quite 

 young, transforming their tissue into its own long mycelium threads, 

 which at maturity produce, in infinite numbers, the minute blackish 

 spores. Frequently, only a few of the grains are affected, making 

 a striking contrast with those of natural size. It was long supposed 

 that this smut was a diseased state of the corn plant ; but there is 

 no longer reason to doubt that it is a small, dirty plant, growing at 

 the expense of one of the most useful members of the vegetable 

 kingdom. Vegetation and reproduction in these plants are reduced 



