614 Microscopical Fungi Infesting our Cereals, (October, 
The ergot in its Sphacelia form is, as mentioned before, not 
confined exclusively to rye, but its conidia infect several species 
of grass, such as Lolium, Bromus, Dactylis and others. Thus-a 
number of diseases befalling our domestic animals are most 
probably to be ascribed to the “ honey-dew” which the animals 
have eaten with such infected grasses. Of course the farmer 
ought to remove the infected plants growing in the neighborhood 
of his rye fields. He ought to pick out the ergot grains as 
much as possible before the corn is mown, and as they are only 
formed during the short period of fructification, he has to apply 
such methods of cultivating his ground (particularly the drilling) 
as tend to produce a simultaneous development of the fruits, thus 
reducing the dangerous period to a comparatively short time. 
II. Smuts—The Ustilaginee, or smuts, are parasitic “fungi 
whose fine-threaded, wide-spreading mycelium grows through 
large portions of the infected plants. They fructify, however, 
only in certain parts of these plants and at certain periods. In 
such proper places the threads of the mycelium increase rapidly, 
resorbing the surrounding tissue. Their free ends become di- 
vided into cells; the latter, after being separated, are surrounded 
by a second membrane and thus transformed into spores. These 
spores occupy as a brownish dust or powder the place of the 
destroyed tissue, and are set free in a measure as the infected 
parts decay. 
The organs of the plant in which these fungi are fructifying, 
- vary according to the species of smut. So we see the whole 
panicle of oat infected by Ustilago carbo, or “ oat-smut;” the 
interior of the wheat grains by Tietia caries, or “ bunt;” the 
anthers of several Silenee by’ Ustilago antherarum, and the female 
cobs of our maize by Ustilago maydis, or maize-smut. When in 
any of these Ustilaginez the spores are being formed, the threads 
of the mycelium become dissolved and disappear; consequently 
when the smut is fully developed we shall find nothing but the 
afore-mentioned spores. 
-~ Numerous experiments have shown that these spores maintain 
their power of germination for several years. When brought on 
a moist substratum they produce, within a few days, a germ tube 
or promycelium on which minute sporidia of various shapes, 
according to the various species of smut, are formed. Accord- 
ing to the observations of Hoffmann, Kühn and other eminent 
