1847.] Brand in the Cereals. 185 



After its destruction the mass of brand appears intersected as it 

 were, by numberless thin sparry fibres, (Fig. 4, 5); these fibres 

 are the woody bundle of the panicle stems (Rispenstiele) which 

 are wholly destroyed up to these. Under the microscope we 

 plainly see, that these fibres (Fig. 6) are the woody bundles di- 

 vested of the parenchymatous tissue, to which remains nothing 

 but the layer of inner bark, (Fig. 6, a), and the spiral vessels, 

 (Fig. 6, b). But before the observation is made, we must care- 

 fully cleanse them from the spores which stick to them (c), and 

 which render impossible any observation, as they surround them 

 with a tolerably strong layer. 



The spores (Fig. 7) are oval-globular, smooth, transparent, 

 olive-brown, with large kernels filling the hollow space of the 

 spore skin, and having pretty distinct little openings (feuster- 

 chen? hilum) Their diameter varies from 0.000420 to 0.000430 

 Paris inch. 



From the formation of this general covering of the brand skin, 

 the husbandman can very easily keep his millet seed clean from 

 infection; provided he causes the branded ears to be carefully re- 

 moved in time and burned. But they must not be cast on the 

 dunghills, for multifarious experiments teach that the spores of 

 the fungus will retain their germinating power for years in the 

 earth, and they will even pass through the digestive organs of 

 animals and be discharged perfectly unimpaired and produce new 

 fungi, as I have particularly observed with respect to the common 

 toad stool. 



Explanation of the Illustrations. 



Fig. 3, a millet plant with the brand a, not yet fully opened. 

 Fig. 4, a brand shedding its powder of the natural size. Fig. 5, 

 single fibres of this brand of the natural size. Fig. 6, such a fibre 

 magnified; a, the cells of the inner bark; b, the spiral vessels of 

 the woody bundles; c, the brand spores. Fig. 7, spores strongly 

 magnified. 



VII. The Rye Brand. Roggen or Ranch brand, Cladosporium 

 herbarum, {^Link.^ 



Plate III. Fig. 8— 15. 



It has been already remarked in the Introduction, that the au- 

 thor of these pages has never found rye affected by any kind of 

 brand; which observation has been confirmed, as regards the 

 Aug brand in the following words by Prof. Dr. Kunze of Leipsic. 

 " Obs. It is called flug brand by the farmers of Germany. It 



