THE BUNT FUNGUS. 105 



the fungi producing the disease so called above, appear on 

 the plant in the form of masses of dust. The botanical 

 name for the fungi now under notice is uredines (from the 

 Latin word uro, I burn, from the scorched appearance they 

 give to the plants which they attack). The "smut" is 

 formed of the spores of an uredo called the uredo segetum. 

 This sooty powder resulting from the attacks of this fungus 

 appears on the flowering parts of the plant; the pedicels 

 or little stalks, on which the flowers are seated, swell, 

 become very fleshy in appearance, and become ultimately 

 filled with black dust. The smut fungus is often confounded 

 with the bunt fungus (next to be noticed) ; but although 

 resembling it in the colour and shape of the deposits of ' 

 dust, these deposits are not half so large, while they have 

 none of the disgusting odour which distinguishes the bunt 

 fungi or dust. The smut fungi are not so much dreaded 

 by the farmer as the bunt fungi, inasmuch as the spores 

 have generally dispersed before the corn is cut, while they 

 impart no disagreeable odour to the flour which may be 

 made from the com infected by them. The smut or dust 

 brand is comparatively rare in the wheat crop, common, 

 however, in the barley, more so in the oat, and not met 

 with in the rye crop. 



11. The "bunt" or "pepper brand" fungus is much 

 more dreaded than the smut. The botanical name for it is 

 uredo fcetida, so called from the peculiarly disgusting odour 

 it imparts to the infected grain. When an 

 &' infected grain is crushed, in place of flour, 

 a black, oily, and foetid mass is exuded, the 

 interior of the ovary is entirely destroyed, 

 the only part remaining being the integument 

 or outer skin, which serves as a case or sac 

 to contain the spores, which amount, as we 

 have already observed, to the enormous 

 number of four million in one grain. Fig. 

 11 shows the sporules of the bunt fungus 

 on their mycelium, their diameter being about the six 

 hundredth part of an inch. 



