188 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
In onr school-days we remember to have spent many a 
stray half-hour digging for “ earth-nuts/ - ’ under which name 
we, as well as our elders and betters, knew the tubers of 
Bunium flexuo sum. Not then, nor for many years after, did we 
notice, or regard if we did notice, the distorted radical leaves 
and leaf-stalks, and the blackish brown spots, which reveal the 
cause in the presence of a brand, or parasitic fungus, of 
this genus {Puccinia Tim bel lifer arum, DC.) which is extremely 
common on this, as well as some other allied plants. If any spot 
is searched where this plant grows in any profusion, before 
the flowering stalks have made their appearance above the 
surrounding grass, this Puccinia will be readily found by the 
twisted, contorted, sickly appearance of the infested leaves 
(fig. 34), the petioles of which are often swollen and gouty 
in consequence. The sporidia are shortly stalked and generally 
very much constricted. The species found on the stems of the 
hemlock, and also that on Smyrnium Olusatrum, are distinct ; 
the spores of the latter being covered with tubercles or 
warts. During a botanical ramble through Darenth Wood in 
April of the year just passed^ away, in some parts of which the 
sanicle abounds, we found the bright, glossy leaves of this 
singular and interesting plant freely sprinkled with the pus- 
tules of a Puccinia (P. Saniculce, Grev.), which is not at all 
uncommon on this, but has not hitherto been found on any 
other plant. Dr. Grreville, of Edinburgh, was the first to 
describe this, as well as many other of our indigenous minute 
Fungi. For many years he has toiled earnestly and vigo- 
rously at the lower cryptogams, as evidenced by his a ' Scottish 
Crypt ogamic Flora,” published in 1823 ; and yet his con- 
tinual additions to the records of science show him to be 
earnest and vigorous still. 
We have by no means exhausted the catalogue of Fungi 
belonging to this genus found in Britain, nor even those com- 
monly to be met with ; but the fear of prolixity, and the desire 
to introduce a description of other forms into the space still 
remaining to us, prompt us to dismiss these two-celled brands 
with but a brief allusion to such as we cannot describe. Box- 
leaves are the habitat of one species, and those of the peri- 
winkle of another. One vegetates freely on the leaves of 
violets through the months of July and August, and another 
less frequently on the enchanter’s nightshade. Several species 
of willow-herb ( Bpilobium ) are attacked by one Puccinia , and 
a single species by another. Plum-tree leaves, bean leaves, 
primrose leaves, and the half-dead stems of asparagus, have 
their separate and distinct species, and others less commonly 
attack the woodruff, bedstraw, knotgrass, ragwort, and other 
plants less common, more local, or, to the generality of the 
non-botanical, but imperfectly known. 
