Introduction. 5 



known in ainicMit times, tor tho ])robabilities are that it was infludod under 

 the general term of mildew^ or blight. Thus, Bacon says, " Mildew falleth 

 upon corn and smutteth it," and even now. Rust and Smut are often con- 

 founded, the name of " Black Rust " having been applied to Flag Smut for a 

 number of years in South Australia. 



In historical times, the nature and origin of smut were mucii discussed, 

 and the different views held by eminent writers brought it prominently into 

 notice. The Stinking Smut of wheat was evidently the lirst to attract atten- 

 tion, for TuU, writing in i7;);>, remarks that " Smuttiness is when the grains 

 of wheat, instead of flour, are full of a black stinking powder." Then, in 1755, 

 Tillet distinguished between la Carie the Stinking Smut, and la Charbon or 

 Loose Smut. The grains composing the smut were supposed to resemble the 

 spores of puff-balls, and being enclosed by the Avails of the ovary, Bjerkander' 

 classified this form as a Lycoperdon, in 1775. But this view was not generally 

 accepted, and Tessier, in 1783, while acknowledging the resemblance to Lijco- 

 perdon, considered it rather as a degeneration of the grain and not a, definite 

 and independent organism. He, along with others, had observed that the 

 powder was contagious, but did not know how that pow'der originated. In 

 seeking to account for it all sorts of wild notions were entertained. Some re- 

 garded the black particles as foreign bodies, others as infusoria, and still other.s 

 considered them as indications of an offended deity, for in an article on the 

 subject of smut, in the fifth volume published by the Bath Agricultural Societv, 

 in 1790, the following occurs : — " Premiums, offered for preventing evils which 

 originate from intemperate seasons and destroying blights, may excite inven- 

 tion, artifice, cunning, imposture, and deception, but can never extend the 

 boundary or expand the circle of human knowledge or human power. ■ He, 

 and He only, wdio can repel the malignant blasts of the East ; fraught with 

 myriads of consuming insects, which originate from what or where none but 

 Omniscience knows, and substitute the soft, healing, balmy zephyrs of the 

 West, can reward the labours of the industrious husbandman with plenty and 

 happin-.ess." 



But the view of the smut as being due to degeneration of the plant itself 

 persisted for a long time, and was held by eminent scientists. Instead of re- 

 garding the smut powder as consisting of spores capable of reproducing the 

 fungus from wdiich they were derived, they were considered to be diseased out- 

 growths, morbid conditions, or eruptions of vegetable matter. As late as 

 18;3o, this was the view put forth by such a good observer as Unger. in his 

 work " Die exantheme der Pfianzen " and it was adopted by Schleideu even 

 in 1846. About a century ago, in 1807, Prevosti discovered the important 

 fact that the smut spores germinated in water, and consequently showed that 

 the smuts were of the nature of fungi. Unger, in referring to this, remarks 

 that, although fungus filaments were produced, there was no evidence to show 

 that they possessed the power of infectio)i. This evidence w^as only forth- 

 coming iu 1858, when Kuehn dii'cctly followed the penetration of the genn 

 threads in wheat. 



With our present knowledge, it seems diilicult to conceive tliat even when 

 the snmts were acknowledged to be fungi, and that they produced spores, it 

 should titill be maintained that they were of tiie nature of diseased outgrowths 

 from the plant itself. The facts of their development were generally known ; 

 but that the spores were capable of infection had still to be experimentally 

 proved. Even such a distinguished physiologist as Meyen', in 18.37. did not 

 realize the importance of the spores in the production of the disease, although 

 he described their formation accurately as shown in the following passage : — 

 "I consider it to be an established fact, that the smut (Ustila(jo,L'u\k) is not a 

 contagious disease, but is inlierited, and arises from the stoppage of the saps 



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