Four diseases in wheat of fungal origin are known and recognized in the popular language of the farm as “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, especially 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 generally 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 recognized; 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 (Plate V. fig. 84). When broken, the farinaceous interior will be found replaced by a minute black dust of a very fœtid, unpleasant odour, and greasy to the touch (fig. 85). 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 ignorance of the fact.