this species the special subject of observation, states that the fleshy mass which is occupied by the fungus consists entirely of uniform tissue, presenting large, almost quadrilateral cavities, separated by walls, composed of one or two layers of very small cells filled with a compact homogeneous mass of very minute granules, perfectly spherical and equal, slightly adhering to each other, and at first green, afterwards free or simply conglomerate towards the centre of each mass, and of a pale rufous hue; at length the cellular walls disappear, the globules become completely insulated, and the whole mass is changed into a heap of powder, consisting of very regular globules, perfectly alike, black, and just like the reproductive bodies of other fungi (Plate V. fig. 99). A scientific botanist of some repute, M. Unger, published a work in Vienna during the year 1823, in which he sought to prove that this, and allied species of fungi, were not fungi at all, but merely broken up cells, or disruptured and altered conditions of certain portions of the diseased plants. The most satisfactory refutation of this theory may be found in the fact that the spores of the smut can be seen to germinate under favourable conditions, and produce fruit, whereas, if they were only the ordinary cells of the plant broken up by disease, fructification would not take place. The spores in this species are exceedingly minute. It has been ascertained that forty-nine of them would be contained within a space the one-hundred-and-sixty-thousandth part of a square inch; hence one square inch of surface would contain little less than eight millions. These myriads of spores are shed from the ears, and nothing remains but the barren matrix in which they were borne when the farmer proceeds to gather in his crops. At that time he sees no more of the “smut,” all remembrance of it for the time is gone, his only thought is to stack his corn in good condition. But the millions of spores are dispersed, ten millions at least for every ear that has been “smutted,”—and will they not many of them reappear next year, and thus year after year, with as much certainty as the grain upon which they are parasitic?