118 Brand in the Cereals. [Sept., 



and thicker, and not as in the sound seed tapering toward the top 

 (Fig. 16), but increased in thickness (Fig. 4). On its base or 

 on the head, the anthers remain hanging or standing, while in the 

 sound seed they have long since fallen off. The head with the 

 pistil (Fig. 4, c), is broader, and the outer skin (a) of the seed 

 corn afi'ected by brand is rougher and fine punctured. 



Let a seed corn fhus affected by brand be cut through horizon- 

 tally, and it be examined under a magnifying glass (1 ig. 5), we 

 find outwardly a simple outer skin, and internally a dark black 

 substance often approaching to violet, which is extremely fine 

 grained and greasy, gives out a foul penetrating amraoniacal smell, 

 and on being dried falls to powder. In the middle of the grain 

 affected by brand we generally see a clearer colored square gray 

 spot, which on close examination is found to consist of the re- 

 mains of the former cellular texture. If now we examine more 

 closely the particular organs of such a kernel affected with brand, 

 we find that the outer skin of the seed thus affected consists of a 

 single stiff layer of cells (Fig. 21), the cells of which in respect 

 to their form and size, resemble much the outer cellular layer of 

 the seed-skin of the sound seed (Fig. 20, w); but their walls are 

 no longer porous, but paper-like, stiflf and folded lengthwise; they 

 are not so finely colored, as in the sound seed, but are of a smutty 

 earth color. The second and third cellular layer (Fig. 19, o, p) 

 of the sound seed, has wholly disappeared in the diseased one; 

 the same is true of the cells of gluten, of which not a single trace 

 remains. 



On examining still more minutely the black smutty mass, which 

 fills the space designed for the albuminous bodies, we find that 

 here and there it contains some particles of cellular tissue, like the 

 cellular tissue of the albuminous bodies, but the cells themselves 

 are much widened (Fig. 6, d) and folded. But the hollowspaces, 

 are filled with grains of brand (Fig. 6, e). Should the brand not be 

 fully ripe or developed, we find the cellular tissue still entirely pre- 

 served and connected together, but without any traces of amylum. 

 This latter is scarcely ever developed in diseased seed, but in place 

 of it are formed clear globular cells of the same size (Fig. 7), 

 which w^e instantly distinguish as the young grains of brand. 

 These by form are oily-grained contents (Fig. 7), which increases 

 with the advancing growth of the same (Fig. 8), and their cellu- 

 lar skin previously clear as glass and white, becomes brownish 

 colored. In the later growth we find the entire cells of brand 

 (Fig. 9) filled with little oil-drops, and the cellular wall is of 

 pale violet color, but it is still smooth. These cells, natural histo- 

 rians call the spores or seeds of the fungi which constitute the brand, 

 and in the advancing ijrowth the cellular skin, which is the seed 

 skin of the spore, gradually becomes dark colored and covered with 



