Germination of Teleutospores of Ustilaginee. 73 
until Brefeld,* in 1882, published his investigations, by 
which it appears that the Ustilagineze are capable of per- 
petuating themselves for long periods, outside and inde- 
pendently of their host-plant, in the excreta of herbivorous 
animals. It will be more convenient to describe the ger- 
mination of the spores of the various Ustilaginez in detail, 
as was done with their spore-formation. 
Much confusion exists in the works of various authors 
who have written upon the subject, from the diverse appli- 
cations to which the word “spore” has been made. For 
instance, Cooke} speaks of the teleutospores of the Ustila- 
ginez as pseudospores, which term he applies to the zcidio- 
spores, uredospores, and teleutospores of the Uredinez. 
Again, these bodies are sometimes called conidia, which 
term is applied by Brefeld to the secondary spores of the 
Ustilaginez. In order to avoid confusion, it may as well 
be stated at once that while the term “spore” may be 
correctly applied to all the reproductive bodies possessed 
by these fungi, in a general sense, yet it becomes necessary 
to affix to it some qualifying word, such as teleuto-spore, 
resting-spore, uredo-spore, promycelial spore, zecidio-spore, 
and so forth. In speaking of the Ustilaginez, the word 
“spore” has generally been applied to the perfect, last- 
‘formed bodies—the teleutospores, analogous to the teleuto- 
spores of the Uredinez ; those bodies, in fact, with which 
we are all familiar as the black dust of bunt and smut. 
These black teleutospores, when they germinate, protrude 
a germ-tube—the promycelium. This promycelium bears 
certain very small hyaline bodies, which are spores, and 
may be fairly enough designated promycelial spores, inas- 
much as they have been produced by the promycelium ;- 
as, however, the term “ sporidia” is very commonly applied 
* Brefeld, ‘‘ Hefenpilze.” 1883. 
t Cooke and Berkeley, ‘‘ Fungi, 
x: 1875, 
» International Scientific Series, vol, 
