4gO CASUALTIES OF VEGETABLES. CHAP. XII. 



also upon the grain, and increases the amount of 

 injury. It has been well figured by Mr. Bauer. 



SUBSECTION II. 



. Smut is a disease incidental to cultivated 

 Corn by which the farina of the grain, together 

 with its proper integuments and even part of the 

 husk, is converted into a black soot-like powder. If 

 the injured ear is struck with the finger, the powder 

 will be dispersed like a cloud of black smoke ; and 

 if a portion of the powder is wetted by a drop of 

 water and put under the microscope, it will be found 

 to consist of millions of minute and transparent 

 globules, which seem to be composed of a clear and 

 glary fluid encompassed by a thin and skinny mem- 

 brane. 



This disease does not affect the whole body of the 

 crop, but the smutted ears are sometimes very nu- 

 merously dispersed throughout it. Some have at- 

 tributed it to the soil in which the grain is sown, 

 and others have attributed it to the seed itself, 

 Alleging that smutted seed will produce a smutted 

 crop. But in all this there seems to be a great deal 

 of doubt. Willdenow regards it as originating in a 

 small Fungus, which multiplies and extends till it 

 occupies the whole ear.* But Mr. F. Bauer, of 

 Kew, seems to have ascertained it to be merely a 



* Princip, of Bot. p. 356. 

 5 



