162 MICROSCOPIC FUNGI. 



CHAPTER XIL 



WHITE MILDEWS OR BLIGHTS. 



TVrOT WITHSTANDING the inconyenience to 

 i.1 ourselves of calling very different fungi by 

 the same common name of ^^ mildew/^ the popular 

 mind does not recognize the inconvenience^ since 

 it scarcely troubles itself to inquire whether they 

 are not all the same thing. In obedience to this 

 custom^ we again write of ^^ mildew/'' or ^^ blight/^ 

 as it is called in some districts^ but of a very 

 different kind to that which is so detrimental to 

 growing crops of corn. In the present instance 

 it is our intention to illustrate a group of fungi 

 which are exceedingly common^ and which differ 

 greatly in appearance and structure from any to 

 which we have had occasion to allude. To obtain 

 a general knowledge of these forms let our reader 

 proceed at once to a clump of rank grass ; if it is 

 his fortune to dwell in the country^ the walk of a 

 few yards will suffice. Let him examine this clump 

 more carefully^ perhaps^ than he has been ac- 

 customed to do^ and we venture to predict that he 

 will find some of the leaves covered with what 

 appears to be a dirty white mouldy or mildew 

 (plate XI. fig. 235). One of these leaves should be 

 collected as carefully and conveyed to the microscope 



