220 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



16-20 M in diameter; bad odor just before maturity and retaining the odor even 

 in stored grain. 



Distribution and hosts. Common in eastern North America, also in Canada 

 and Manitoba. 



Poisonous properties. It produces a bad odor when it occurs in flour and 

 also gives the same a dark color and makes it unsalable. 



Tilletia Tritici (Bjerk.) Wint Wheat Bunt 



Sori in the ovaries of wheat ovate or oblong, glumes spreading; spores 

 chiefly spherical or sub-spherical; 16-22 /* in diameter, light to dark brown 

 with winged reticulations. Infection of this and the preceding smut occurs 

 at the time of germination of wheat, hence all of the stalks growing from the 

 single wheat kernel become infected, mycelium growing upward with the growth 

 of the plant. 



Distribution and hosts. Common upon wheat wherever cultivated. Re- 

 ported as destructive and abundant in Michigan, Montana, and Kansas. 



Poisonous properties. Same as in the preceding species. 



Eubasidii 



Conidiophores with true basidia; reproduction generally asexual, sexual in 

 some cases through the fusion of nuclei; spores cut off from the ends of the 

 threads or borne on little sterigmata. The group is divided into two divisions 

 according to the form of the basidia: Protobasidiomycetes, the rusts and gela- 

 tinous fungi; Autobasidiomycetes, toad stools, mushrooms, and puff balls. 



Fig. 59. The Gelatinous Fungi. Tremellineae. 1. Tremella lutescens on wood. 2, 

 Cross section through hymenium, b Basidia, c Conidia, sp Basidiospores, x 450. 3. Exidia, 

 truncata. 4. Tremellodon gelatinosum. 5. Basidia of the same x 560. 1-3 after Brefeld. 

 4-5 after Mueller. 



