38 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
which the seed corn is liable between the time of its reaping 
and the period of its sowing, we might expect a very large 
crop of “ smutted ” corn. Under ordinary circumstances we 
can scarcely imagine that the loss arising from infected 
ears would repay much special labour to prevent it, only that 
to a large extent the precautions taken to cleanse the seed 
corn from the spores of one fungus will also avail for another, 
and while cleaning it of the spores of “smut,” those of 
“ bunt ” will also be removed. The facts that we rely upon 
chiefly as indicating the remedy are that the spores are only 
superficially in contact with the seed corn, and that they are 
of less specific gravity, causing them to float on the surface 
of any fluid in which the corn may be immersed. Again, the 
spores of many species of fungi will not germinate after satu- 
ration with certain chemical solutions. One of the most 
successful and easy of application is a strong solution of 
Glauber’s salt, in which the seed corn is to be washed and 
afterwards, whilst still moist, dusted over with quick-lime. The 
rationale of this process consists in the setting free of caustic 
soda by the sulphuric acid of the Glauber’s salt combining 
with the lime, and converting it into sulphate of lime. The 
caustic soda is fatal to the germination of the spores of 
“ bunt,” and probably also of “ smut ; ” although, as already 
intimated, except in cases where these affections of the corn 
are very prevalent, we shall be informed by the agriculturist 
that the cost of labour in the prevention will not be compen- 
sated in the cure. 
Experience has also taught us that all fungi flourish in 
proportion to the wetness of the season, or dampness of the 
locality. A wet year is always exceedingly prolific in fungi, 
and a dry season correspondingly barren. In a field or a 
wood the mycologist reaps his richest harvest of mycological 
specimens in the lowest and dampest spots, in swamps, 
ditches, and ill- drained nooks. This is a fact worth knowing 
as much by the farmer as the amateur botanist in search of 
specimens for his herbarium. 
One of the most unmistakable species of “ smut ” is that 
which infests the goatsbeard, on which we have already 
described an JEcidium. Generally about the same time as the 
cluster-cups make their appearance on the leaves, some of 
the unopened flower-heads of this plant will be found con- 
siderably altered in appearance by tho shortening of the 
segments of the involucre, and at length by the whole inflo- 
rescence being invested with a copious purplish-black dust. 
If, by any means, the lobes of the involucre are any of them 
separated, the enclosed dust escapes, blackening the fingers 
and clothing of the collector, as if it were soot. A little of 
