110 MICROSCOPIC FUNGI. 



CHAPTER IX. 



EUSTS. 



A QUARTER of a century ago^ and all tlie fungi 

 enumerated in tlie preceding and in the pre- 

 sent and following chapters would have been 

 arranged under three genera^ called respectively 

 ^cidiiim^ Pucciniciy and Uredo, Under the last- 

 named genus all the species illustrated in the pre- 

 sent chapter^ beside many others^ would have found 

 ^^ a habitation and a name.''^ There are still a few 

 which bear the old generic name^ and^ if only out of 

 respect_, we shall grant them the first place. 



Let the first bright day in May witness the 

 student beside a cluster of plants of Mercitrialis 

 2Jerennis^ which it will not be diSicult to find in 

 many localities^ and^ on turning up the lower 

 leaves^ he will meet with our first illustration of 

 a genuine Uredo, in the form of yellow confluent 

 patches^ with a powdery surface (plate VII. 

 fig. 133). This will be Uredo confluens. By the 

 way^ the generic name is in itself suggestive, 

 which it always should be in all instances_, but 

 unfortunately is not ; it is derived from the Latin 

 word uro, ^'J. burn/^ and is peculiarly applicable 

 in instances where the leaves acquire a blistered, 

 burnt, or scorched appearance, occasioned by the 



