40 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Four diseases in wheat of fungal origin are known and 
recognized by agriculturists ; these are called in the popular 
language of the farm, “mildew,” “rust,” “smut,” and 
“ bunt.” Sometimes one and sometimes another is most 
prevalent, and he is an exceedingly fortunate individual who 
can walk through his fields and find only one of them, especi- 
ally if that one should be sparingly distributed. It has been 
our good fortune to dwell much amongst cornfields, and the 
terror of the word “ mildew ” to a farmer's ears is not 
unfamiliar in our reminiscences of the past, ere we discarded 
the much-loved country to become a dweller in town. The 
subject of our present remarks inspired no such alarm in the 
districts of our experience, but in some seasons and localities 
it is certainly one of the “ pests of the farm.” Under the 
different appellations of “ bunt,” “ pepper brand,” “ bladder 
brand,” and sometimes “ smut,” this infection is very gene- 
rally known. Externally there is no appearance, except to 
the practised eye, that anything is wrong. There is no black 
impalpable dust about the ears as in the true “ smut,” no 
red withered leaves or spotted stem as in the “rust” and 
“ mildew,” and no stunted growth or malformation, evident 
to the casual glance, by which the insidious foe can be recog- 
nized ; but stealthily and secretly the work is accomplished, 
and until the “ bunted ” grains make their appearance in the 
sample, the disease may, perchance, be unchallenged. 
Externally the “ bunted ” grain is plumper, and whilst the 
corn is still green these will be of a brighter green than the 
rest. When broken, the farinaceous interior will be found 
replaced by a minute black dust of a very foetid, unpleasant 
odour, and greasy to the touch. This powder constitutes the 
spores of the “ bunt ” mixed with myceloid threads. It may 
happen that much of the corn in a field is “ bunted ” and the 
discovery not made till the wheat is being ground for flour ; 
then the odour and colour will speedily decide the produce 
to be unfit for human food. We have not the least doubt 
that “ bunted ” corn, when ground with flour, is injurious 
in proportion to its extent, whilst at the same time we can 
scarcely conceive an intelligent miller grinding up a sample 
containing any large proportion of “ bunted ” grains in igno- 
rance of the fact. 
If we break open a grain of wheat infested with the “ stink- 
ing rust ” or “ bunt,” and then place some of the powder 
in a drop of water on a glass slide, and submit this to the 
microscope, first using the half-inch power, then the quarter, 
or fifth, and finally an eighth or tenth, we shall find that this 
minute dust consists of myriads of globose brown bodies, 
termed spores, which possess certain reproductive func- 
