322 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



344. Organisms filled witli minute spores exist in several 

 genera, and probably will be discovered hereafter in all. Whe- 

 ther they are only analogues of male organs, or really such in 

 function, remains yet to be proved. The elder Sowerby ex- 

 pressly assigns them this character in his English Fungi, under 

 tab. 410, where they are perhaps figured for the first time. 



345. In some' instances, as in Coleosjjoriunn, there are two 

 distinct modes of fructification, apart from the forms induced 

 by germination. In some heaps the moniliform threads are 

 resolved into spores which germinate at definite points (Fig. 

 6, 6) ; in others the sori are more solid, and the threads remain 

 firm, germinating in situ at indefinite points, and producing 

 very much the same combination which exists in Dacrymyces.* 

 In Cystopus (the white rust of cabbages), the same dualism 

 exists, one form as before, consisting of moniliform threads, 

 while in jEcidium, which has also chains of spores, there is but 

 one form of fruit besides the spermatogonia known at present. 



346. Many of the most formidable enemies of the farm, 

 as rust, smut, and bunt, arise from Fungi belonging to 

 this tribe. The surest remedy is to steep the seedgrain in 

 some solution, which at once washes off a portion of the spores, 

 and poisons the rest. Many remedies have been proposed, as 

 simple water, salt, lime, sulphate of copper, corrosive sublimate, 

 arsenic. The best, perhaps, is sulphate of soda in solution 

 (Glauber's salts), dried off with quickhme. The lime combines 

 with the sulphur to form sulphate of lime, while caustic soda 

 is set free. Bunt is confined to wheat or nearly so, and in 

 consequence wheat is generally steeped ; but smut is so un- 

 common, or so little feared, that oats and barley are seldom 

 steeped. A bad year, however, like the present, sometimes 

 occurs, which shows that this process is not altogether useless. 

 There was a loss of one third in many barley crops this season. 

 Rust is seldom injurious in this country, but it is formidable 

 on the continent. One form of rust is merely the infant state 

 of wheat mildew, which comes under the following section. 



* Tulasne's Memoirs, in the 3rd and 4th Series of the Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles, must be consulted by those who wish to have full 

 details on these matters, for which I have not room hei-e ; and also 

 Bary, Untersuchungen liber die Brandpilze, Bei-lin, 1853. 



