252 DISEASES OF FIELD & GARDEN CROPS. [CH. 



tion in 1847. The septa are best seen in the spores 

 which have germinated and borne conidia, and such as 

 have lost their vital material, as at DD, Fig. 116. For 

 spores of Fusisporium illustrated to the same scale as 

 germinating bunt, see Figs. 10, 11, 92, 94, and 96 in 

 this work. 



It is easy to prove that bunt in wheat is propagated by 

 the spores of the fungus, for if wheat seeds are dusted with 

 the spores or watered with water containing spores, every 

 wheat plant will come up bunted ; whereas neighbouring 

 plants, if not so treated, will come up free from disease. 



Bunt spores are said (perhaps on insufficient grounds) 

 to be more or less injurious if mingled with flour and 

 made into bread. We have frequently seen them in flour 

 and bread, together with spores of Urocystis and other 

 fungi. Bunt spores were, we believe, at one time sup- 

 posed to be the cause of cholera, because they were found 

 in cholera evacuations. Professor Hallier has erroneously 

 referred cholera to the presence of Urocystis occulta, Pre., 

 a fungus common in Britain on rye, as well as to bunt, as 

 may be seen by his Phytopathology, and the reports of Drs. 

 Cunningham and Lewis in the Lancet of 2d, 9th, and 1 6th 

 January 1869. Fowls have been fed with bunted wheat 

 without any bad result. 



A fungus allied to bunt, but still nearer to smut, and 

 named Ustilago grand is, TuL, is said to cause headache 

 and other bad symptoms amongst the men engaged in 

 cutting reeds for thatching, in consequence of their inhal- 

 ing the abundant spores. The same fungus is said to 

 cause eruptions on the face amongst the labourers of the 

 South of Europe. 



When bunt is known to be amongst seed grain it 

 should be washed or steeped in some weak poisonous solu- 

 tion, as the minute spores from bunted grains adhere to the 

 healthy seeds. Water, salt, quicklime slacked with boiling 

 water ; sulphate of copper, a quarter of a pound to a bushel 

 of corn, and sulphate of soda have all been recommended. 



