Rust, Smut, Mildew, & Mould: An Introduction to the Study of Microscopic FungiCooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt)
Science
Rust, Smut, Mildew, & Mould: An Introduction to the Study of Microscopic Fungi
Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt)
Phytopathogenic fungi -- Great Britain
The third species occurs on the under surface of the leaves of the
mountain-ash. The peridia are clustered on a rusty orange-coloured spot
which is visible on the upper surface (Plate II. figs. 18, 19). They are
long and cylindrical, with an evident tendency to curvature; the mouth
is serrated, but not split up into threads, as in the species found on
the hawthorn. There will often be found instead of well-developed
peridia, what at one time were regarded as abortive peridia, forming a
thickened orange or rust-coloured spot, studded with minute elevated
points. These spots are clusters of spermogones, which organs are
described in detail in our second chapter. The clusters and spores are
of a brighter reddish-brown than in either of the other species. All are
remarkably distinct, and perhaps the most curious and interesting of any
that we have passed in review. To botanists, the species found on the
hawthorn is known as _Rœstelia lacerata_, that on pear-leaves as
_Rœstelia cancellata_, and the one on the leaves of the mountain-ash as
_Rœstelia cornuta_.
Dr. Withering observed the spore-spots on the leaves of the
mountain-ash, but was evidently puzzled to account for them. He writes
(in his Arrangement of British Plants), “The spots on the leaves of
_Sorbus aucuparia_ consist of minute globules intermixed with wool-like
fibres. On examining many of them in different states, I at length found
a small maggot in some of the younger spots, so that the globules are
probably its excrement, and the fibres, the woody fibres of the plant
unfit for its food.” We now-a-days smile at such simple and singular
conjectures. It affords evidence of the manner in which the speculations
of one generation become follies in the next.
Only two species of cluster-cups are described in Withering’s Flora
under the genus _Lycoperdon_: one of these is now called _Æcidium
compositarum_, and is found on various composite plants; the other
includes the species found on the wood-anemone and that on the
moschatel, and also probably a species of _Puccinia_ on the wood-betony.
To render this chapter more complete, though of less importance to the
microscopist, we may allude to the other two genera comprised within
this order. _Peridermium_ is the name of one genus which contains two
British species found on the leaves and young shoots of coniferous
trees. In this genus the peridium bursts irregularly, and does not form
cups, or horns, or fringed vessels. The most common species is found on
the needle-shaped leaves of the Scotch fir (Plate II. fig. 27), and also
on the young twigs, in the latter instance larger and more prominent
than in the former. The elongated peridia burst irregularly at their
apices without forming teeth (fig. 28).
In the genus _Endophyllum_, as its name implies, the peridium is
imbedded within the substance of the succulent leaves. The only species
we possess is found rarely upon the common house-leek.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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