Rust, Smut, Mildew, and Mold

IN these latter days, when everyone who possesses a love for the marvellous, or desires a knowledge of some of the minute mysteries of nature, has, or ought to have, a microscope, a want is occasionally felt which we have essayed to supply. This want consists in a guide to some systematic botanical study, in which the microscope can be rendered available, and in which there is ample field for discovery, and ample opportunity for the elucidation of facts only partly revealed. Fungi, especially the more minute epiphyllous species, present just such an opportunity as many an ardent student would gladly take advantage of; one great obstacle to the pursuit being hitherto found in the absence of any hand-book to this section of the British Flora, embracing the emendations, improvements, and additions of the past twenty-seven years (the period at which the fifth volume of the “English Flora” made its appearance). It would be incompatible with our object, and beyond our limits, to introduce an entire mycological flora to our readers in these pages; but we hope to communicate such information as will serve to prepare the way still more for such an additional Flora, should it ever be produced, and render the demand still wider and more general for such an extension of our botanical literature. It is true that one work has of late years issued from the press on this subject, but notwithstanding its utility to scientific men as a record of species, it is practically useless to those we address, from the absence of all specific descriptions of microscopic fungi.

Let not the reader imagine, from what we have just stated, that it is our intention to burden him with a dry series of botanical descriptions; as much of this as we deem essential to render the book available to the botanical student, we have preferred to add in the form of an Appendix. Useful as these may be to some, we hope to be enabled to furnish for others something more; and although we at once disclaim any intention of including all the microscopic, or even the epiphytal fungi, in our observations, yet we trust, by a selection of common and typical species for illustration, and by an adherence to certain well-defined groups and sections, to demonstrate that the microscopist will find an eligible field for his observations in this direction, and the botanical student may gain some knowledge of their generic and specific distinctions.

It is exceedingly difficult to give a logical definition of what constitutes a fungus. It is no less difficult to furnish a popular description which shall include all and nothing more. If, for example, we particularize the spots and markings on the leaves and stems of herbaceous plants, so commonly met with from early spring till the fall of the last leaf, and even amongst the dead and decaying remains of the vegetation of the year, we may include also such spots and marks as result from insect depredations or diseased tissue. It is not always easy, with a cursory observation under the microscope, to determine whether some appearances are produced by fungi, insects, or organic disease: experience is the safest guide, and until we acquire that we shall occasionally fail.