52 



OUTLINES or BRITISH FUNGOLOGY 



tiary spores capable of germinating. It is by these that the 

 plant is really reproduced. 



In the Bunt the process is easily observed. If a portion of 

 the spores be laid on a piece of damp flannel or on a slip of 

 glass, and properly secured from evaporation, a Avhite floccose 

 matter is soon seen upon them, and when examined by the 

 microscope it is found that the spore first gives out an obtuse 

 thread, which produces at the apex a coronet of curved deli- 

 cate appendages like the spores of a Fusisjiorium , to which 

 genus they Avere referred before their true character was as- 

 certained;^ these soon become connected by lateral threads, 

 and ultimately produce little oblong somewhat oblique cells, 

 which germinate and reproduce the plant (Plate 1, fig. 5). 

 The analogy between this and the development of pollen- 

 grains on the one hand, and the formation of the prothallus 

 in the higher cryptogams, is very curious. t 



This mode of propagation is not unimportant as regards 

 these parasites. It was quite clear that their spores could not 

 enter by the storaates of the stem or leaves, or much less by 

 the tender tissue of the spongclcts of the roots. Nor, to take 

 the case of Bunt as an illustration, was it more possible for 

 the large blunt germinating threads of the first order thus to 

 enter. By this mode of propagation, however, a far more de- 

 licate spawn is produced, and Avhere the spores are not for 

 a long time adherent to the mother plant, but are entirely 

 bloAvn aAvay at an early period, as in the Smut, avc have the 

 spaAvn in the field ready to attack the seed the moment it 

 is committed to the ground. 



Besides these modes of propagation. Fungi are extensively 

 propagated by fragments of the spawn, as for instance the 



* See ' Propagation of Bunt :' Berkeley, in Joiirn. of Hort. Soc. vol. ii. p. 107. 

 t These points are discussed in the ' Introduction to Ci-jptogamic Botany,' 

 p. 10, but they involve abstruse matters wliieli would be out of place here. 



