THE SMUT FUNGI 



227 



also cause these spores to germinate. They send out 

 tiny tubes that penetrate the young oats plant. The threads 

 of the fungus thus get into the growing tissues where they 

 continue to develop by sending out numerous branches that 

 run through all parts of the stalk. An elaborate mycelium 

 is thus formed, and continues to 

 develop along with the growing 

 oats plant. 



When the grain begins to send 

 out its heads, the fungus develops 

 a mass of thickened threads within 

 the florets. These threads soon 

 give rise to millions of blackish 

 spores that form the familiar pow- 

 der of smutted grain. 



The spores of this fungus are so 

 minute that the number in a single 

 diseased oats head is almost incon- 

 ceivably great. It has been esti- 

 mated that a single cubic inch of 

 the smut powder would contain 

 64,000,000,000 spores. Of course, 

 most of these spores never develop. 

 With the lower forms of life, Nature produces vast numbers 

 of reproductive bodies, with the expectation, as it were, 

 that only a small fraction of a per cent will find conditions 

 suitable for continued existence. 



Many experiments have shown that Oats Smut may be 

 prevented by soaking the seed in diluted solutions of for- 

 malin, thus destroying the spores that cause the disease. 



There is another form of smut disease, which is more in- 

 jurious to wheat than this loose smut, called the Bunt or Ill- 

 smelling Smut, because it has a distinctly disagreeable odor. 



OATS 

 SMUT 



