FUNGI. 397 
each grain is found to be converted into a vast 
number of minute round balls or sporules of a 
deep brownish-black colour. Bauer says that in 
the 160,000th part of a square inch he counted 
forty-nine of those sporules, so that eight millions 
of them will exist on one square inch of surface. 
Farmers regard the appearance of a few such 
diseased ears among their corn fields with com- 
placency—imagining that somehow or other they 
are the harbingers of a good crop. There have 
been frequent coincidences of this kind no doubt ; 
but there is no connexion between them as cause 
and effect. Appearing so early in the season, the 
smut ripens and scatters its seed long before the 
grain reaches maturity ; and by the time of harvest 
not a trace of its existence remains to remind the 
farmer of the ravages it has produced. This dis- 
appearance of the fungus when the crop is reaped, 
especially if the harvest be good, is probably the 
true reason why the farmer is prepossessed in its 
favour. Were he better acquainted with its nature 
and habits, he would look upon each black head 
of corn with dread as the advanced guard of an 
immense army of destroyers, lying in ambush in 
the soil and on the seed which he sows, and ready 
to take advantage of every favourable opportunity 
to dash his hopes to the ground. 
On the grains of wheat an equally common but 
