SMUTS. 87 



with, flour^ is injurious in proportion to its extent^ 

 whilst at the same time we can scarcely conceive an 

 intelligent miller grinding up a sample containing 

 any large proportion of ^^ bunted '^ grains in igno- 

 rance of the fact. 



If we break open a grain of wheat infested with 

 the ^^ stinking rust^^ or ^^bunt/^ and then place 

 some of the powder in a drop of water on a glass 

 slide^ and submit this to the microscope^ first using 

 the half-inch power^ then the quarter^ or fifth^ and 

 finally an eighth or tenth^ we shall find that this 

 minute dust consists of myriads of globose brown 

 bodies termed spores^ which possess certain repro- 

 ductive functions. These spores will be found 

 mixed with a number of delicate branched threads^ 

 to which they are attached by a short stalk or 

 pedicel^ visible with the higher powers (fig. 86). 

 The surface of the spores you will also observe to 

 be beautifully reticulated. These features just 

 described as visible in the '^ bunt ^^ are the charac- 

 teristics of the genus to which it belongs [Tilletea), 

 and of which it is the only British species. An 

 allied species infests the Sorghum or durra, a grain 

 but little cultivated in Europe_, but found exten- 

 sively in Africa and Asia^ and also apparently found 

 on the Bajra of India. 



The interesting experiments of the Eev. M. J. 

 Berkeley on the germination of ^' bunt ^^ spores 

 have been already alluded to. They were under- 

 taken shortly after the outbreak of the -potato 



