It tiary spores capable of germinating is by these that the
plant is really reproduced.
In the Bunt the process is easily observed. I f a portion ot
the spores he laid on a piece of damp flannel or on a slip of
glass, and properly secured from evaporation, a white floocosc
matter is soon seen upon them, and when examined by the
microscope it is found that the spore first gives out an obtuse
thread, which produces at the apex a coronet of curved delicate
appendages like the spores of a Fusisporium, to which
genus they were referred before their true character was ascertained
these soon become connected by lateral threads,
and ultimately produce little oblong somewhat oblique cells,
which germinate and reproduce the plant (Plate 1, fig. J)-
The'analogy between this and the development of pollen-
grains on the one hand, and the formation of the prothallus
in the higher cryptogams, is very curious.t
This mode of propagation is not unimportant as regards
these parasites. I t was quite clear that their spores could not
enter by the stomates of the stem or leaves, or much less by
the tender tissue of the spongelcts of the roots. Nor, to talce
the case of Bunt as an illustration, was it more possible for
the largo blunt germinating threads of the first order thus to
enter. By this mode of propagation, however, a far more delicate
spawn is produced, and where the spores are not for
a long time adherent to the mother plant, but are entirely
blown away at an early period, as in the Smut, we have the
spawn in the field ready to attack the seed the moment it
is committed to the ground.
Besides these modes of propagation. Fungi are^ extensively
propagated by fragments of the spawn, as for instance the
* See ‘ Propagation o f Bnnt f Berkeley, in Journ. of Ilort. Soc. vol. in p. 107.
t Those points aro cUscussed in the ‘ Introduction to Cryptogamio Botany,
p 1 0 hut they inTolve abstruse m.atters which would he out of place here.
yeast Fungus, which may be reproduced for centuries without
ever throwing up the true fruotifyiug threads, exactly as among
Mosses, a species may exist age after age, though never bearing
fruit.
In some instances nudoubtedly when a plant is once thoroughly
traversed by the spawn, even though it dies or is cut
down by cold every year, a Fungus may be propagated for a certain
time by that portion ivhich remains in the perennial root.
Plants for instance of Achillea Ptarmica, which I brought
from Lille strongly infested with Labrella Ptarmica, yielded
for a year or two scanty crops of the Fungus, till it ceased to
appear altogether, and the same circumstance took place in
my garden with Viola odorata, which was distorted with Poly-
cystis Viola. Similar instances have been observed at Paris.
I t is curious that so few of these parasites appear in our
stoves. Graphiola Phosnicis, on one or two kinds of Palm, is
almost the only one which has been observed, but whether
imported or not it is difficult to say.
I f those Moulds which infest fish or aquatic vegetables, as
Leptomitus, Saprolegnia, etc., when immersed in water, be
truly Fungi, we should have a more perfect type of impregnation
than is presented by the supposed antheridia—at least
one more nearly resembling that in animals; but we are not
at liberty to assume their affinity to Fungi, and for the present
they must he left amongst the Algae, to which they approximate
closely as regards their reproductive organs. For
a history of these I must again refer to the ‘ Introduction to
Cryptogamio Botany.’