THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



UREDO FCETIDA, OR BUNT, 



is another species, also blighting the wheat, but found in 

 the grain, which looks dark, though otherwise like the sound 

 wheat, until it is crushed, when a fetid black powder is 

 seen, the spores of which are larger than those of the smut. 

 Nevertheless, each grain contains four millions of them. 

 They are of an oily nature, so that they stick to the 

 healthy grains, and, if sown with them, infect the next 

 crop ; therefore farmers dress their wheat with potash to 

 destroy this fungus. 



UREDO, OR ^ECIDIUM. 



I mention this, although few specimens are mounted, 

 because it is met with abundantly throughout the autumn 

 and winter on the underside of the Coltsfoot leaf, on Spurge 

 in our gardens, on the twigs of Fir-trees, and on almost 

 every garden vegetable. These yellow spots on leaf or stem 

 are beautiful microscopic objects. The orange-coloured 

 spores form under the cuticle, which breaks sometimes like 

 a cup, or coronet, full of golden dust, that is most in- 

 teresting to the observer. 



I wnl only add that there are 4000 species of fungi, 

 most of which are parasitic on plants and animals. The 

 human body is also subject to their growth the internal 

 parts, as well as the bulb of the hair, the tongue and 

 palate. The tartar of our teeth is partly a fungus, and so 

 is the thrush in infants. 



We can find a rich store of curious and beautiful forms 

 on every dying leaf or decaying stem. Examine the mould 

 on paste or jam ; the Puccinia on Eosertrees, Beans, Black- 

 berries; the jEcidium, growing in bright-red spots, on 

 Gooseberry and Barberry leaves in June and July ; also on 

 the white film on leaves of the garden pea. jEcidium is 

 called erysiphe, and has little spore-cases dotted over it. 

 So also on the leaves of the willow, a lovely little erysiphe, 

 each black dot fringed with hooked filaments. These 

 will give some idea of the variety of fungi, and their in- 



