The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1895-04-06
THE FLOWERLESS PLANTS
SOME 1NPLAcABLE ENEMIES o.
THE HUMAN RACE
5trange Fungi Plants and The5
Power For Evil to Crops-MilGoU
Snent in Their Eradication.

strange Fungi Plants and Theb
Power For Evil to Crops-MillioU
Spent in Their Eradication.
TYHE fowerless plants are
I'll = broadly classified into two
IL kinds-those that live in dark
prison cells, never seeing the
tight of day, and those that are always
exposed to the light the same as ordin.
ary plants. If one enters potato field
at the harvesting time, he is pretty
sure to find examples Of the first. Cut
open one of the tubers attacked by the
potato "rot" 80 called, and thousands
of tkese fowerless plants are revealed.
Black spores run in all directions, and
in the dark, decaying mass the plants
have found prison that is just suited
to their needs. Enter wheat field
next and select head of wheat that
has a dull reddish growth covering
parts Of it, and an example of the sec.
ond class will be seen. The reddish
growths represent thousands of minute
yet distinct plants that altogether
form what is generally termed "whea'
rust"
Fungi are 80 numerous and in so
many forms that one hesitates at the
thought o. ever classifying all of them,
and the textbook designed to explain
them would be more stupendous and
cumbersome than several dictionaries
of the 'sunabridged' style. There are
many thousands of fungi that live on
dead organic matter, and others on
living organisms. We find them grow.
ing on decaying matter, buildings,
stones, leaves, wood, bones, bread,
fruits, jellies, and all vegetable life.
Most of them are injurious, but a few
even of the parasitic sort are nearly
harmless. All fungi are small plants,
which are both fowerless and lacking
in green coloring matter.
The growth OF fungi in living plants
is q source of great concern to the cul.
tivators of farms and gardens, and the
question of controlling their growth is
one that involves millions Of dollars.
The enormous grain crops Of the coun.
try are often reduced twenty per cent.
by the ravages of these minute plants,
and if it were not for the poisons that
are used for spraying in the spring
and summer our fruit harvests would
be sadly diminished. The plant fungi
are more numerous than the cultivated
plants, and under favorable conditions
they can multiply with a rapidity that
is astonishing. Many millions can be
created in one day, but their vast
multiplication is partly checked by
nature. If the spores fail to obtain
the conditions necessary for germina.
tion they die, and large percentage
perish from this cause. Figures hardly
give an adequate idea of the numbers
of these plants, and yet they are
always quoted. A single grape leaf,
or wheat plant, contains when affect
ed by disease many millions of the
spores of the plants, and it is said that
5000, $1,000 corn-smut spores are
held in single cubic inch of space.
This race of fowerless plants is the
most implacable enemy that mankind
has to contend with. It has destroyed
enormous crops of cereals, fruits and
vegetables, and Like destruction is only
prevented every year through a cease
less war against the enemy. The wheat
rust ruins the finest fields, and farmers
have to fight against it with great
persistency. The spores of one of the
rusts grow on the barberry bushes,
and to check their growth all of these
bushes near wheat fields have to be
destroyed. The other two kinds of
rusts grow on the wheat plants, and
the spores are mingled with the seed,
year after year, when planted. Con-
sequently in sections where the rust
appears the seed has to be soaked in
hot water before planting, heated at a
temperature that will kill the spores
without destroying the terminating
powers of the grains. The downy
grape mildew that ruins SO many Of
our grape-vines, and threatens grape
culture with extinction in parts of the
country, produces spores that live in.
side and outside of the leaves. The
spraying of deadly poisons over the
foliage early in the season is the only
way to kill the spores and the peculiar
parasitic plants that follow. The 1ny-
celium, which under the microscope
looks much like fine linen interviewer,
is inside the grape leaf, and special
branches are thrown out through the
breathing pores of the leaf, SO that
the perfect trees or plants are formed
in appearance. The tip of each branch
bears a spore, and on many vines
these spores become so abundant that
d downy appearance is given to the
underside of the leaves, from which
the downy mildew derives its name. A
fresh crop of these spores is often Gre
ated every morning during damp
weather, and if wet season prevails
the grape crop may prove failure ID
spite of all spraying methods.
In the potato field the strange fungi
plants do a tremendous amount Of
damage. A solitary spore may drop
upon the young potato, plant and send
slender tube through one Of the
breathing spores, into which the semi
fluid protoplasm can pass. The plants
flourish inside of the growing potato
and pass easily from the leaves and
stalks to the tubers under the ground.
In this dark prison the strange plants
thrive and develop until the tubers
are nothing but rotten masses. The
spores of the corn-smut likewise enter
the corn plants as they come -p, and
in the stalk they remain for a long