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The document promotes the availability of various eBooks related to security and operations management, including titles like 'Introduction to Security: Operations and Management' and 'Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management.' It provides links for instant access and download of these textbooks from ebookluna.com. Additionally, it outlines the contents and structure of the 'Introduction to Security' textbook, covering essential topics in security operations, management, and trends.

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Brief Contents

Pa r t 1
Introduction: Security’s Role in Society 1
Chapter 1 History and Overview 2
Chapter 2 Threats to Safety and Security 25
Chapter 3 The Legal and Regulatory Environment of the Private Security
Industry 47

Pa r t 2
Security Operations: Essential Functions 71
Chapter 4 Physical Security 72
Chapter 5 Personnel Security 98
Chapter 6 Information Security 118

Pa r t 3
Security Sectors 139
Chapter 7 Institutional Security 140
Chapter 8 Commercial, Office, and Residential Security 167
Chapter 9 Homeland Security 186

Pa r t 4
Security Management 215
Chapter 10 Management, Leadership, and Ethics in Security Organizations 216
Chapter 11 Managing People and Organizations 239
Chapter 12 Risk Assessment, Security Surveys, and Continuity Planning 256

Pa r t 5
Trends and Challenges 275
Chapter 13 Security in an International Perspective 276
Chapter 14 The Future 296

vii

This page intentionally left blank
Contents

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xx

About the Authors xxi

Pa r t 1
Introduction: Security’s Role in Society 1
Chapter 1 History and Overview 2
Learning Objectives 2
The Context for Security 2
Theoretical Foundations 3
Security: A Brief History 5
Ancient Traditions 5
English Origins 6
The American Experience 7
Security in America: Colonial Origins to WWI 7
Security in the Twentieth Century 10
World War II 11
The Cold War and the National Industrial Security Program 11
Federal Initiatives 13
Post-9-11 Security 15
The Contemporary Security Industry 15
Security Personnel 16
Proprietary Security 16
Contract Security Services 17
Hybrid Security Organizations 18
Determining Security Needs 19
Security’s Impact 20
Security: Essential Functions 20
Roles of the Security Manager 21
Summary 23 • Key Terms and Concepts 23 • Discussion Questions
and Exercises 24 • Your Turn 24

Chapter 2 Threats to Safety and Security 25


Learning Objectives 25
Introduction 25
Accidents 26
Human Error and Accidents 28

ix

Fire 28
Counterproductive Workplace Behaviors 32
Workplace Violence 32
Crime 33
Nature and Extent of Crime 33
White-Collar Crimes 35
Organized Crime 35
Theories of Crime 36
Crime Prevention 40
Terrorism 40
Civil Unrest 41
Labor Unrest 42
Man-made Disasters 42
Environmental Accidents/Disasters 42
Warfare 43
Natural Disasters 44
Civil Liability 45
Summary 45 • Key Terms and Concepts 46 • Discussion Questions and
Exercises 46 • Your Turn: Assessing Threats to Safety and Security in Your Area 46

Chapter 3 The Legal and Regulatory Environment of the Private


Security Industry 47
Learning Objectives 47
Introduction 47
Constitutional Law 48
Criminal Law 49
Civil Law 51
Negligence Torts 52
Intentional Torts 53
Defamation 53
Remedies under Tort Law 54
Defenses under Tort Law 54
Administrative Law 55
Contract Law 56
E-contracts 57
Noncompete Agreements 58
Property Law 58
Employment and Labor Law 59
Collective Bargaining Laws 60
Municipal Ordinances 61
Industrial Self-Regulation 61
Regulation of the Security Industry 62
Judicial Systems and Processes 63
State Courts 65
The Judicial Process 66
Criminal Cases 66
Summary 68 • Key Terms and Concepts 69 • Discussion Questions and
Exercises 69 • Your Turn: Researching and Writing a Case Brief 69

Contents x

Pa r t 2
Security Operations: Essential Functions 71
Chapter 4 Physical Security 72
Learning Objectives 72
Introduction 72
Physical Security Systems 72
Levels of Protection 73
Core Elements of Physical Protection Systems 75
Perimeter Security 76
Lighting 77
Fencing and Barriers 78
Sensors 80
Alarm Systems 82
Alarm System Management 83
Building Exteriors and Interiors 85
Access Control 85
Locks 86
Fire Sensors and Alarms 89
Fire Protection Systems 91
Fire Extinguishers and Sprinkler Systems 91
Cameras and Surveillance Systems 92
Guard Forces 94
Summary 96 • Career opportunities 96 • Key Terms and
Concepts 96 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 96 • Your Turn:
Strengthening Physical Security for a Small Business Owner 97

Chapter 5 Personnel Security 98


Learning Objectives 98
Introduction 98
Personnel Security: Key Elements 98
Personnel Security and Hiring Practices 99
Continued Reliability 101
Other Personnel Security Issues 103
Personnel Safety 103
Executive Protection Details 104
Workplace Violence 106
The Nature and Extent of Workplace Violence 107
Preventing Workplace Violence 109
Violence in Health Care Settings 111
Violence in Retail Outlets and Convenience Stores 112
Personnel Security and International Issues 112
Executive/Corporate Kidnapping 113
Health Threats to Employees 114
Terrorism 115
Summary 115 • Careers in Personnel Security 116 • Key Terms and
Concepts 116 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 116 • Your Turn:
Managing Workplace Violence 117

Contents xi

Chapter 6 Information Security 118
Learning Objectives 118
Introduction 118
Information Security 119
Information Security Objectives 119
Designing an Information Security Program 120
Key Components of an Information Security Program 121
Asset Classification and Access Control 121
Policies and Procedures (Operational Goals) 123
Physical Security Controls 124
Human Activities and Information Security Policy 124
Technical/Logical Controls 125
Communications and Operations Management 126
Systems Development and Maintenance 126
Business Continuity Management 127
Compliance 127
Cybersecurity 127
The Nature and Extent of Cybercrime 128
Types of Cybercrimes 128
SCADA-based Attacks 131
Protecting Computer Networks 131
Communications Security 132
Protecting Intellectual Property 133
Summary 136 • Career Opportunities in Information Security 136 • Key Terms
and Concepts 137 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 137 • Your Turn:
Preventing Cyberstalking 138

Pa r t 3
Security Sectors 139
Chapter 7 Institutional Security 140
Learning Objectives 140
Introduction 140
Financial Institution Security 140
ATM Security 143
User Authentication and Financial Institution Security 144
Courthouse and Courtroom Security 145
Educational Institution Security 147
Elementary and Secondary Schools 147
Institutions of Higher Education 150
Types of IHE Security Programs 151
IHE Legislation 152
Health Care Security 153
Extended Care/Nursing Home Security 155
Entertainment Security 155
Theme Parks 155
Mega Events 156
Gaming and Casino Security 158

Contents xii

Museum Security 159
Zoo and Aquarium Security 160
Religious Institutions and Security 162
Summary 164 • Career opportunities 164 • Key Terms and
Concepts 164 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 165 • Your Turn: Analyzing
the Virginia Tech Incident 165

Chapter 8 Commercial, Office, and Residential Security 167


Learning Objectives 167
Introduction 167
Industrial Security 167
Shipping/Cargo Security 168
Utilities Security 171
Hospitality Security 172
Retail Security and Loss Prevention 174
Internal Employee Theft and Retail Crime 175
External Threats and Retail Crime 176
Shoplifting Prevention Strategies 178
Office Building Security 180
Residential Security 181
Summary 184 • Career opportunities 184 • Key Terms and
Concepts 185 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 185 • Your Turn: Managing
Retail Crime 185

Chapter 9 Homeland Security 186


Learning Objectives 186
Introduction 186
Homeland Security: A Historical Perspective 187
The 9-11 Commission and Homeland Security 187
The USA PATRIOT Act 189
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security 190
DHS Main Components 192
Advisory Panels and Committees 193
Homeland Security: Function and Mission 194
The Role of the Private Sector in Homeland Security 194
The National Infrastructure Protection Plan 194
National Incident Management System 198
Terrorism and Homeland Security 200
Homeland Security: Natural, Technological, and Accidental Hazards 203
Transportation Security 205
Aviation Security 205
Strategies for Passenger Screening and Explosives Detection 207
Trucking Industry Security 208
Railroad Security 209
Maritime Security 210
Summary 211 • Career Opportunities in Homeland Security 212 • Key Terms
and Concepts 212 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 213 • Your Turn :
Spotting Potential Terrorist Activities 213

Contents xiii

Pa r t 4
Security Management 215
Chapter 10 Management, Leadership, and Ethics in Security Organizations 216
Learning Objectives 216
Introduction 216
The Need for Effective Administration 217
What is Management? 219
Core Functions of Management 219
Managerial Levels 220
The Evolution of Managerial Thought 221
The Role of Supervision in the Workplace 223
Leadership 223
Leadership Theories 225
Behavioral Assumptions and Leadership Style 227
Ensuring Ethics and Integrity 230
Ethical Dilemmas 232
Unethical Activities 232
Ethical Standards 233
Ethical Leadership 233
The ASIS Code of Ethics 235
Summary 236 • Key Terms and Concepts 237 • Discussion Questions and
Exercises 237 • Careers in Security Management 237 • Your Turn:
Demonstrating Ethical Leadership in the Face of Workplace Theft 238
Chapter 11 Managing People and Organizations 239
Learning Objectives 239
Introduction 239
Personnel Recruitment and Selection 239
Hiring Off-duty Police Officers 240
Negligent Hiring and Retention 241
Employee Development and Training 242
Performance Appraisal 243
Policies and Procedures 244
Scheduling 245
Planning 247
Types of Plans 249
Performance Measures 249
Budgeting 252
Summary 254 • Career Opportunities 254 • Key Terms and
Concepts 255 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 255 •
Your Turn 255

Chapter 12 Risk Assessment, Security Surveys, and Continuity Planning 256


Learning Objectives 256
Introduction 256
The Concept of Risk 256

Contents xiv

Identifying Risk 259
Risk Assessment Techniques 261
Security Surveys 262
Conducting the Survey 263
Assigning Risk Levels 264
Quantifying Risk: Examples 265
Risk Management Techniques 267
Continuity and Contingency Planning 269
Contingency Plans 269
Contingency Plans and Emergency Management 270
Summary 272 • Key Terms and Concepts 273 • Discussion Questions and
Exercises 273 • Your Turn: Conducting a Safety and Security Survey 273

Pa r t 5
Trends and Challenges 275
Chapter13 Security in an International Perspective 276
Learning Objectives 276
Introduction 276
The Private Security Industry in Europe 277
The former USSR and Warsaw Pact Countries 277
Yugoslavia and Southern Eastern Europe 277
The European Union 279
The United Kingdom 281
The African Continent and Private Security 283
The Private Security Industry in Central and South America 285
International Issues and Private Security 286
High Seas Piracy 286
Private Military Security Companies (PMSCs) 289
Regulating the International Private Security Industry 291
The Montreux Document 291
The International Code of Conduct 292
The United Nations 292
Summary 294 • Career Opportunities in International Security 295 •
Key Terms and Concepts 295 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 295 •
Your Turn 295

Chapter 14 The Future 296


Learning Objectives 296
Introduction 296
Globalization 296
Human Security and Globalization 298
Technology 302
Legislative Trends in Security 304
Terrorism 305
Shifts in International Terrorism 308

Contents xv

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Growth and Challenges 309
Partnerships 310
Changes in Security-Related Services 311
Changes in Higher Education 312
Summary 312 • Future Career Opportunities 313 • Key Terms and
Concepts 313 • Discussion Questions and Exercises 314 • Your Turn: Assessing
Intercultural Competency 314
Glo s s a r y 315

References 335

Index 369

Contents xvi

P re fa c e
World events including the attacks of September 11, 2001, warfare, man-made and natural
disasters, concern over crime, and security-related legislation have led to individuals,
institutions, and governmental units to discover, re-examine, and explore the practices,
roles, and functions of private security in society and organizations. The fifth edition of
INTRODUCTION TO SECURITY: Operations and Management is the culmination of years
of classroom teaching and practical experiences by the authors that provides readers with
an understanding of the diverse and complex field of private security. It is particularly
designed for two audiences: individuals exploring or seeking careers in private security,
and those who want to gain a better understanding of the practice and field of security and
how it differs from and complements the public sector criminal justice system.
The primary goal of this edition is to provide students and practitioners a detailed descrip-
tion and understanding of the private security industry and its diverse roles and functions in
the twenty-first century. The book is balanced between security and management and leader-
ship principles and practices. As such, it is relatively unique among other security texts,
integrating security and managerial practices into one comprehensive text. Because of its
design and content, it can readily be used in traditional and online undergraduate and gradu-
ate courses related to private security and security management. This text will also serve as a
useful desk reference for security personnel and serve as study guide and aid for professional
certifications, including the ASIS Certified Protection Professional (CPP) examination.

New to this Edition


This new edition has been updated to include the following:
• Most recent information related to the security industry and contemporary leadership
and managerial practices.
• Many of the previous edition’s topics have been reorganized and condensed into a
more cohesive format, concentrating on major themes.
• Application of the course content has also been enhanced through more applied learn-
ing opportunities found throughout the text, and there are updated exercises at the end
of each chapter.
• Many of the topics and issues reviewed in this edition are also approached in an inter-
disciplinary style, reflecting the diverse character of the security industry itself.
• A new chapter on security in an international perspective.

▶ Organization of the Book


The book is divided into five major parts that are additive and complementary in nature.
Part 1 introduces the reader to foundational information related to the history and evolution
of security, and security’s function and role in society. Chapter 1 presents a brief history
and overview of private security. Chapter 2 provides the reader with an understanding of
the role of security in society and organizations. Chapter 3, meanwhile, focuses on the
legal aspects that private security operations are exposed to and follow. Part 2 examines
the fundamental elements of private security programs and practices, concentrating on the
three pillars on which security programs are built. Chapter 4 focuses on physical security.

xvii

Chapter 5 presents topics related to personnel security. Information security is the primary
subject of Chapter 6. Following an understanding of security’s role and its fundamental
activities within organizations, Part 3 reviews specific security sectors. Chapter 7 explores
security issues unique to specific institutions. Chapter 8 introduces the reader to security
practices and applications in the context of commercial, office, and residential security,
while Chapter 9 reviews key concepts and issues related to the concept and philosophy of
homeland security. Section 4 explores concepts related to how to lead and manage security
operations in the various security sectors that exist. For example, Chapter 10 reviews basic
concepts related to the effective management and leadership of security organizations.
Chapter 11, meanwhile, examines core human resource activities performed by security
managers and financial management activities related to budgeting. This section concludes
with Chapter 12, which includes information related to risk management: particularly risk
assessment and continuity planning. The last section of this text explores trends and
­challenges. Chapter 13 provides the reader with a review of the private security industry in
an international perspective while Chapter 14 explores future trends and issues.
This fifth edition also contains a variety of learning and study aids to assist in enhanc-
ing the reader’s foundational knowledge to ensure that key information, ideas, and
­perspectives important to the field of private security, management, and leadership are
mastered. Some of these study aids will also enhance critical, practical, and creative
thinking skills, which are essential attributes needed to manage the twenty-first-century
security organization. For example, each chapter begins with a set of learning objectives
that serve to explain what knowledge a person should be able to exhibit upon completion
of the chapter. Included within the chapters are “Quick Surveys” that serve to apply key
concepts found in the ­chapter to practical issues and situations, while “Security ­Spotlights”
are also found throughout the text where readers can further apply and synthesize infor-
mation from the chapter to actual, real-life issues related to security operations and
­management. Each ­chapter also concludes with a list of key terms and exercises and
­discussion questions to further ensure mastery of the information found in the chapter.
The text also has a comprehensive glossary that can serve as a ready reference guide for
key security terms and concepts.

▶ Instructor Supplements
Instructor’s Manual with Test Bank. Includes content outlines for classroom discussion,
teaching suggestions, and answers to selected end-of-chapter questions from the text. This
also contains a Word document version of the test bank.
TestGen. This computerized test generation system gives you maximum flexibility in cre-
ating and administering tests on paper, electronically, or online. It provides state-of-the-art
features for viewing and editing test bank questions, dragging a selected question into a
test you are creating, and printing sleek, formatted tests in a variety of layouts. Select test
items from test banks included with TestGen for quick test creation, or write your own
questions from scratch. TestGen’s random generator provides the option to display differ-
ent text or calculated number values each time questions are used.
PowerPoint Presentations. Our presentations are clear and straightforward. Photos, illustra-
tions, charts, and tables from the book are included in the presentations when applicable.
To access supplementary materials online, instructors need to request an instructor access
code. Go to www.pearsonhighered.com/irc, where you can register for an instructor
access code. Within 48 hours after registering, you will receive a confirming email,
­including an i­nstructor access code. Once you have received your code, go to the site and
log on for full instructions on downloading the materials you wish to use.

Preface xviii

▶ Alternate Versions
eBooks This text is also available in multiple eBook formats. These are an exciting new choice
for students looking to save money. As an alternative to purchasing the printed textbook,
­students can purchase an electronic version of the same content. With an eTextbook, students
can search the text, make notes online, print out reading assignments that incorporate lecture
notes, and bookmark important passages for later review. For more information, visit your
favorite online eBook reseller or visit www.mypearsonstore.com.

Preface xix

A c k n ow l e d g m e n t s
I wish to express my deepest appreciation to the many people who provided support and
assistance during the development of the fifth edition of this textbook. Gratitude is extended
to my colleagues at Pearson including Gary Bauer, Jennifer Sargunar and Nikhil Rakshit,
and to the excellent Aptara team led by Production Project Manager Rakhshinda Chishty
and copy editor Tripti Khurana. Thank you so much for your professionalism, attention to
detail, and dedication. Many thanks are also extended to the following individuals who
shared their expertise in security for this edition: Thomas Ackerman, Director, Institute of
Public Safety (Santa Fe College, Gainesville, Florida), Dan Bohle, Investigator, GVSU
Security, Daniel Carncross, Director of Security (Columbia-Sussex Corporation, East
Lansing Division), MACS (EXW/IDW) Steven J. Dyke, USN, Richard Grossenbacher
(U.S. Secret Service (Ret), and Brian F. Kingshott, Ph.D., FRSA (London). I would also
like to thank Andria Zwerk and Derek Manke for their assistance in the preparation of
the manuscript.
I also appreciate the valuable contributions made by the reviewers of the previous
editions: Jamie A. Latch, Remington College; Patrick Patterson, Remington College;
Charles Green, Remington College; Jerome Randall, University of Central Florida;
Richard Hill, University of Houston-Downtown; Dimitrius A. Oliver, Ph.D., Holly
Dershem-Bruce, Dawson Community College, Glendive, MT; Stephen Jones, University
of Maryland, College Park, MD; Sean Gabbidon, Penn State University, Middletown, PA;
Neal Strehlow, Fox Valley Technical College, Appleton, WI; Donald Jenkins, Central
Community College, Grand Island, NE; Michael Moberly, Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale, IL; Charles Biggs, Oakland City University, Oakland City, IN; Terrance
Hoffman, Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY; and Kevin Peterson, Innovative
Protection Solutions LLC, Herndon, VA; John Bolinger, MacMurray College; Sonya
Brown, Tarrant County College; Janice Duncan, Bauder College; and Bobby Polk,
Metropolitan Community College—Omaha, NE.
Finally, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my family, friends, and colleagues
for their encouragement and patience.

xx

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Plate III.
W. West imp.

With a view to the clearer understanding of these parasites in the


phases of their development, let us select one, and we cannot do
better than adhere to that of the wheat and other graminaceous
plants. A fine day in May or June dawns upon our preparations for a
stroll, far enough into the country to find a wheat-field. Even now,
with the area of the metropolis constantly widening, and banishing
farmers and wheat fields farther and farther from the sound of Bow-
bells, a corn field may be reached by a good stiff walk from Charing-
Cross, or a six-penny ride at the most, in nearly any direction.
Having reached the field, it may be premised that a walk into it of
less than twenty yards will be sure to reward you with the fungus we
are in quest of. Look down at the green leaves, especially the lower
ones, and you will soon find one apparently grown rusty. The surface
seems to be sprinkled with powdered red ochre, and grown sickly
under the operation. Pluck it carefully, and examine it with a pocket
lens. Already the structure of a healthy leaf is familiar to you, but in
the present instance the cuticle is traversed with numerous
longitudinal cracks or fissures, within which, and about their
margins, you discern an orange powder, to which the rusty
appearance of the leaf is due. Further examination reveals also
portions in which the cuticle is distended into yellowish elongated
pustules, not yet ruptured, and which is an earlier stage of the same
disease. This is the “rust” of the agriculturist, the Trichobasis rubigo-
vera of botanists, the first phase of the corn mildew.
To know more of this parasite, we must have recourse to the
microscope; having therefore collected a few leaves for this purpose,
we return homewards to follow up the investigation. We will not stay
to detail the processes of manipulation, since these will not offer any
deviation from the ordinary modes of preparation and examination
of delicate vegetable tissues.
The vegetative system of the “rust,” and similar fungi, consists of
a number of delicate, simple, or branched threads, often intertwining
and anastomosing, or uniting one to the other by means of lateral
branchlets. These threads, termed the mycelium, penetrate the
intercellular spaces, and insinuate themselves in a complete
network, amongst the cells of which the leaf, or other diseased
portion of the plant, is composed. High powers of the microscope,
and equally high powers of patience and perseverance, are
necessary to make out this part of the structure. We may regard the
whole mycelium of one pustule, or spore-spot, as the vegetative
system of one fungal plant. At first this mycelium might have
originated in a number of individuals, which afterwards became
confluent and combined into one for the production of fruit, that is
to say, an indefinite number of points in the vicinity of the future
mycelium developed threads; and these, in the process of growth,
interlaced each other, and ultimately, by means of transverse
processes, became united into one vegetative system, in which the
individuality of each of the elementary threads became absorbed,
and by one combined effort a spore-spot, or cluster of fruit, was
produced. In the first instance a number of minute, transparent,
colourless cellules are developed from the mycelium: these enlarge,
become filled with an orange-coloured endochrome, and appear
beneath the cuticle of the leaf as yellowish spots. As a consequence
of this increase in bulk, the cuticle becomes distended in the form of
a pustule over the yellow cellules, and at length, unable longer to
withstand the pressure from beneath, ruptures in irregular, more or
less elongated fissures (Plate VII. fig. 141), and the yellow bodies,
now termed spores (whether correctly so, we do not at present
inquire), break from their short pedicels and escape, to the naked
eye presenting the appearance of an orange or rust-coloured
powder. In this stage the spores are globose, or nearly so, and
consist of but one cell Plate VII. figs. 142, 144). It will afford much
instructive amusement to examine one of these ruptured pustules as
an opaque object under a low power, and afterwards the spores may
be viewed with a higher power as a transparent object. The
difference in depth of tint, the nearly colourless and smaller
immature spores, and the tendency in some of the fully matured
ones to elongate, are all facts worthy of notice, as will be seen
hereafter.
A month or two later in the season, and we will make another trip
to the cornfield. Rusty leaves, and leaf-sheaths, have become even
more common than before. A little careful examination, and, here
and there, we shall find a leaf or two with decidedly brown pustules
intermixed with the rusty ones, or, as we have observed several
times during the past autumn, the pustules towards the base of the
leaf orange, and those towards the apex reddish-brown. If we
remove from the browner spots a little of the powder, by means of a
sharp-pointed knife, and place it in a drop of water or alcohol on a
glass slide, and after covering with a square of thin glass, submit it
to examination under a quarter-inch objective, a different series of
forms will be observed. There will still be a proportion of subglobose,
one-celled, yellow spores; but the majority will be elongated, most
with pedicels or stalks, if they have been carefully removed from the
leaf, and either decidedly two-celled, or with an evident tendency to
become so. The two cells are separated by a partition or
dissepiment, which divides the original cell transversely into an
upper and lower cell, with an external constriction in the plane of the
dissepiment (Plate IV. fig. 59). These bilocular or two-celled spores
are those of the “corn mildew” (Puccinia graminis), which may be
produced in the same pustules, and from the same mycelium, as the
“corn rust,” but which some mycologists consider to be a distinct
fungus, others only a modification or stage of the same fungus. After
an examination of the different forms in the allied genera to which
these chapters are devoted, we shall be able with less of explanation
and circumlocution to canvass these two conflicting opinions.
Let us proceed, for the third and last time, to our cornfield, when
the corn is nearly or fully ripe, or let us look over any bundle of
straw, and we shall find blackish spots, from the size of a pin’s head
to an inch in length, mostly on the sheaths of the leaves, often on
the culm itself. This is the fully developed mildew, and when once
seen is not likely afterwards to be confounded with any other
parasite on straw (fig. 57). The drawings of Bauer have already been
alluded to. Bauer was botanical draughtsman to George III., and his
exquisite drawings, both of the germination of wheat and the fungi
which infest it, are marvels of artistic skill. A reduced figure from
part of one of his drawings is given (Plate IV. fig. 58), exhibiting a
tuft of the bilocular spores of Puccinia graminis bursting through a
piece of wheat straw. These closely-packed tufts or masses of
spores, when examined with a common lens, seem, at first, to
resemble the minute sorus of some species of fern; but when seen
with higher powers, the apparent resemblance gives place to
something very different. The tufts consist of multitudes of stalked
bodies, termed spores, which are constricted in the middle and
narrowed towards either extremity. The partition, or septum, thrown
across the spore at the constriction, separates it into two portions,
each of which consists of a cell-wall enclosing an inner vesicle filled
with the endochrome (fig. 59) or granular contents, in which a
nucleus may often be made out. This species of Puccinia is very
common on all the cereals cultivated in this country, and on many of
the grasses. A variety found on the reed was at one time considered
a distinct species; but the difference does not seem sufficient to
warrant a separation. However near some other of the recognized
species may seem to approximate in the form of the spores, a very
embryo botanist will not fail to observe the distinctive features in the
spores of the corn mildew, and speedily recognize them amongst a
host of others; subject, as they may be, to slight deviations in form,
resulting either from external pressure, checks in development, or
other accidental circumstances, or the variations of age.
There is no doubt in the minds of agriculturists, botanists, savans,
or farm-labourers, that the mildew is very injurious to the corn crop.
Different opinions may exist as to how the plants become inoculated,
or how infection may be prevented or cured. Some have professed
to believe that the spores, such as we have seen produced in
clusters on wheat straw, enter by the stomata, or pores, of the
growing plant, “and at the bottom of the hollows to which they lead
they germinate and push their minute roots into the cellular texture.”
Such an explanation, however plausible at first sight, fails on
examination, from the fact that the spores are too large to find
ingress by such minute openings. It is improbable that the spores
enter the growing plant at all. The granular contents of the spores
may effect an entrance either through the roots or by the stomata,
or the globose bodies produced upon the germination of the spores
may be the primary cause of infection. We are not aware that this
question has been satisfactorily determined. It is worthy of
remembrance by all persons interested in the growth of corn, that
the mildew is most common upon plants growing on the site of an
old dunghill, or on very rich soil. As the same Puccinia is also to be
found on numerous grasses, no prudent farmer will permit these to
luxuriate around the borders of his fields, lest they should serve to
introduce or increase the pest he so much dreads.
The germination of the spores of the corn mildew is a very
interesting and instructive process, which may be observed with a
very little trouble. If the spores be scraped from the sori of the
preceding year (we are not sure that those of the current year will
succeed), and kept for a short time in a damp atmosphere under a
glass receiver, minute colourless threads will be seen to issue both
from the upper and lower divisions of the spores. These will attain a
length several times that of the spores from whence they spring.
The extremities of these threads ultimately thicken, and two or three
septæ are formed across each, dividing it into cells, in which a little
orange-coloured endochrome accumulates. From the walls of each
of these cells, or joints, a small pedicel, or spicule, is produced
outwards, the tip of which gradually swells until a spherical head is
formed, into which the orange-coloured fluid passes from the
extremities of the threads.[4] A quantity of such threads, bearing at
their summits from one to four of these orange-coloured, spherical,
secondary fruits, supply a beautiful as well as interesting object for
the microscope. When matured, these globose bodies, which Tulasne
has called sporidia, fall from the threads, and commence
germinating on their own account. It is not impossible that the
sporidia, in this and allied genera, may themselves produce a third
and still more minute fruit, capable of diffusion through the tissues
of growing plants, or gaining admission by their stomata. Nothing of
the kind, however, has yet been of certainty discovered.
4. Similar in all essential particulars to the germination of Aregma (Plate III. fig.
45).
Forty other species of Puccinia have been recorded as occurring in
Great Britain, to all of which many of the foregoing remarks will also
apply—viz., such as relate to their two-celled spores being found
associated with, and springing from, the same mycelium as certain
orange-coloured one-celled spores; and also the main features of
the germinating process.
Plate IV.
W. West imp.

A very singular and interesting species is not uncommon on the


more delicate grasses, being found chiefly confined to the leaves,
and produced in smaller and more rounded, or but slightly
elongated, patches (Plate IV. fig. 60). We have met with it plentifully
amongst the turf laid down in the grounds of the Crystal Palace at
Sydenham, and also on hedge-banks and in pastures. The spores
are rather smaller than those of Puccinia graminis, but, like them,
much elongated, slightly constricted, and borne on persistent
peduncles. The most prominent distinction may be found in the
apices of the spores, which, in this instance, are not attenuated, but
crowned with a series of little spicules, or teeth, whence the specific
name of coronata has been derived (Plate IV. fig. 62).
The Labiate family of plants and its ally the Scrophulariaceæ are
also subject to the attacks of several kinds of Brand, a name, by the
bye, often applied locally to the corn mildew and other similar
parasites, and which may have originated in the scorched or burnt
appearance which the infected parts generally assume. In the former
natural order the different kinds of mint, the ground-ivy, the wood-
sage, and the betony, and in the latter, the water figwort and several
species of veronica, or speedwell, are peculiarly susceptible; and on
most a distinct species of Puccinia is found. To provide against doubt
which the less botanical of our readers may possess of the meaning
or value of the term Puccinia, which has already occurred two or
three times in this chapter, a brief explanation may be necessary,
which more scientific readers will excuse.
In botany, as in kindred sciences, acknowledged species have their
trivial, or specific name, generally derived from the Latin. In the last
species referred to, this was coronata, meaning crowned, in
reference to the coronated apex of the fruit. Any indefinite number
of species with some features in common are associated together in
a group, which is termed a genus, and the term prefixed to the
specific name of each species constituting that genus is its generic
name, also commonly derived from the Latin or Greek. In this
instance it is Puccinia, derived from the Greek puka, meaning closely
packed, singularly applicable to the manner in which the spores are
packed together in the pustules. The common features, or generic
distinctions, of this genus, are uniseptate spores borne on a distinct
peduncle.
In returning to the species found on Labiate plants, let us suppose
ourselves to have strolled towards Hampstead Heath, and south of
the road leading from Hampstead to Highgate, near certain
conspicuous and well-known arches, built for a purpose not yet
attained, are two or three muddy ponds nearly choked up with
vegetation. Some fine autumnal afternoon, we must imagine
ourselves to have reached the margin of the most northern of these
ponds, and amidst a thick growth of reeds, sedges, and other water-
loving plants, to have found the water-mint in profusion and
luxuriance, with every leaf more or less occupied, on its under
surface, with the yellow spores of a species of rust (Trichobasis)
mixed with the browner septate spores of the mint brand (Puccinia
Menthæ). This is common also on the horse-mint and corn-mint; we
have found it on the wild basil and wild thyme, and once only on
marjoram. Having collected as many leaves as we desire, and
returned to home and the microscope, we proceed to examine them
in the same manner as we have already examined the mildew, and
as a result of such proceeding arrive at the following conclusions:—
The pustules are small and round, never elongated as in the corn
mildew, and generally confined to the under surface of the leaves
(Plate IV. fig. 69). The spores are subglobose, slightly constricted,
and the two cells nearly two hemispheres, with their flat surfaces
turned towards each other (fig. 70). The form delineated in figure 75
is that of the sorus of many of the epiphytal brands, the centre
being occupied by the closely-packed spores, surrounded to a
greater or less extent by the remains of the ruptured epidermis.
Although the species of Puccinia (P. glechomatis) found on the
leaves of the ground-ivy is said to be very common, we sought it in
vain amongst every cluster of that plant met with during last
summer and autumn, until, nearly despairing of finding it at all, we
at last encountered a plot of ground-ivy covering the ground to the
width of two or three yards, and in length eight or ten, nearly every
plant being attacked by the brand. This was in the corner of a
pasture, and the only time we found infected plants. The fungus,
however, may be as common as the plant in other localities. The
pustules on the leaves are larger than those of the mints, and also
confined to the inferior surface (fig. 73). The spores are elliptic and
but slightly constricted; the apex is often pointed, though not always
so much as in our figure (fig. 74).
Of other species found on allied plants we have not considered it
necessary to give figures, or write much. The betony brand (P.
Betonicæ, DC.) does not seem to be common enough to be readily
found by any one desiring to examine it for himself; and the same
may be said of the figwort brand (P. Scrophulariæ, Lib.), the wood-
sage brand (P. Scorodoniæ, Lk.), and the speedwell brand (P.
Veronicarum, DC.); all of these are, however, characterized by a
distinct feature, or features, which have been considered of
sufficient importance to constitute a separate species.
We have had occasion to refer incidentally to the brand found on
the under surface of the leaves of the wood-anemone (P. Anemones,
P.). This is one of the earliest and commonest species. Go wherever
the wood-anemone abounds, in any of the woods lying immediately
to the north of the metropolis, or any of the woods in Kent, and
from March to May it will not be difficult to find attenuated, sickly-
looking leaves, with the under surface covered with the pustules of
this brand, looking so like the sori of some fern (fig. 65) that it has
been, and still is, sometimes considered as such. In Ray’s “Synopsis”
(3rd edition, 1724), it is described in company with the maidenhair
and wall-rue ferns; a figure is given of it in the same work (t. iii. fig.
1), and it is stated,—“this capillary was gathered by the Conjuror of
Chalgrave.” When, afterwards, it was better understood, and the
spots came to be regarded as true parasitic fungi, it still for a long
time continued to bear the name, not even yet quite forgotten, of
the Conjuror of Chalgrave’s fern.
An examination of the spores, both collectively in the pustules,
and separately under a high power, will not fail to convince any one
who has examined only the species we have already alluded to, that
this parasite on the anemone (P. Anemones) is a true Puccinia, and a
most interesting one. The two cells of the spores are nearly
spherical, and the constriction is deeper and more positive than in
any of the preceding. Moreover, the surface of the spore is minutely
and beautifully echinulate, or covered with erect spines (Plate IV. fig.
66). Some few other of the species found in Britain have echinulate
spores, but those are not common like the present. One word of
caution to the amateur in search of the Puccinia on the anemone. It
will be fruitless looking for it on the large foliaceous bracts of the
flower-stalk, since these may be turned up carefully, till the back
aches with stooping, ere a solitary pustule will be found; but the true
leaves, proceeding from the rhizomes, are certain soon to afford you
specimens.
Everybody knows the dandelion, but it is not every one who has
noticed the fungi found upon its leaves. These are most commonly
of two kinds, or probably the unilocular and bilocular forms of the
same species: the latter we have found in the month of May, and the
former in August and September. The lower leaves of young
seedlings have generally rewarded us with the best specimens of the
septate-fruited brand (Puccinia variabilis, Grev.). The pustules occur
on both sides of the leaf, and are very small and scattered (fig. 82).
The spores are singularly variable in form: sometimes both divisions
are nearly equal in size; sometimes the upper, and sometimes the
lower, division is the smallest; occasionally the septum will be absent
altogether; and more rarely, the spores will contain three cells. From
the very variable character of the spores (fig. 83), the specific name
has been derived.
No species in the entire genus makes so prominent an appearance
as the one found on the radical leaves of the spear thistle (Carduus
lanceolatus). This latter plant is exceedingly abundant, and so is its
parasite (Puccinia syngenesiarum, Lk.). From the month of July till
the frosts set in we may be almost certain of finding specimens in
any wood. The leaves have a paler roundish spot, from one-twelfth
to one-fourth of an inch in diameter, on the upper surface, and a
corresponding dark brown raised spot on the under surface, caused
by an aggregation of pustules, forming a large compound pustule,
often partly covered with the epidermis. The individual pustules are
small, but this aggregate mode of growth gives the clusters great
prominence, and therefore they are not easily overlooked (Plate IV.
fig. 63). Although not confined to this species of thistle, we have not
yet found this Puccinia on any other plant. The spores are elliptical,
rather elongated, constricted, and without spines (fig. 64).
Other species of Puccinia are found on Composite plants, but with
none of these is the present fungus likely to be confounded, if
regard be had to its peculiar habit. The leaves, for instance, of the
common knapweed (Centaurea nigra) are often sprinkled with the
small pustules of the centaury brand (Puccinia compositarum, Sch.);
these generally occupy the under surface of the lower radical leaves
(fig. 67); occasionally a few of the pustules appear on the upper
surface. We have not often found this fungus in the neighbourhood
of London on the leaves of the knapweed, but, on the other hand,
we have encountered it very commonly on those of the saw-wort
(Serratula tinctoria). The spores are oval, scarcely constricted, and
not attenuated in either direction (fig. 68). Other Composite plants
than those above named are liable to attacks from this parasite.
In our school-days we remember to have spent many a stray half-
hour digging for “earthnuts,” under which name we, as well as our
elders and betters, knew the tubers of Bunium flexuosum. Not then,
nor for many years after, did we notice, or regard if we did notice,
the distorted radical leaves and leaf-stalks, and the blackish-brown
spots, which reveal the cause in the presence of a brand, or parasitic
fungus, of this genus (Puccinia Umbelliferarum, DC.), which is
extremely common on this, as well as some other allied plants. If
any spot is searched where this plant grows in any profusion, before
the flowering stalks have made their appearance above the
surrounding grass, this Puccinia will be readily found by the twisted,
contorted, sickly appearance of the infested leaves (fig. 71), the
petioles of which are often swollen and gouty in consequence. The
sporidia are shortly stalked, and generally very much constricted
(fig. 72). The species found on the stems of the hemlock, and also
that on Alexanders (Smyrnium Olusatrum), are distinct; the spores
of the latter being covered with tubercles or warts (figs. 55, 56).
During a botanical ramble through Darenth Wood in April of the year
just passed away, in some parts of which the sanicle abounds, we
found the bright glossy leaves of this singular and interesting plant
freely sprinkled with the pustules of a Puccinia (P. Saniculæ, Grev.),
which is not at all uncommon on this, but has not hitherto been
found on any other plant. Dr. Greville, of Edinburgh, was the first to
describe this, as well as many other of our indigenous minute Fungi.
For many years he has toiled earnestly and vigorously at the lower
cryptogams, as evidenced by his “Scottish Cryptogamic Flora,”
published in 1823; and yet his continual additions to the records of
science show him to be earnest and vigorous still.
We have by no means exhausted the catalogue of Fungi belonging
to this genus found in Britain, nor even those commonly to be met
with; but the fear of prolixity, and the desire to introduce a
description of other forms into the space still remaining to us,
prompt us to dismiss these two-celled brands with but a brief
allusion to such as we cannot describe. Box-leaves are the habitat of
one species, and those of the periwinkle (Plate VI. fig. 132) of
another. One vegetates freely on the leaves of violets through the
months of July and August, and another less frequently on the
enchanter’s nightshade. Several species of willow-herb (Epilobium)
are attacked by one Puccinia (Plate IV. figs. 78, 79), and a single
species by another. Plum-tree leaves, bean-leaves, primrose leaves,
and the half-dead stems of asparagus, have their separate and
distinct species, and others less commonly attack the woodruff,
bedstraw (Plate VIII. figs. 172, 173), knotgrass, ragwort, and other
plants less common, more local, or, to the generality of the non-
botanical, but imperfectly known.
We have found, not uncommonly in the autumn, the scattered
pustules of a brand on the stems and leaves of the goat’s-beard,
occupying the places which were scarred with the remains of cluster-
cups that had flourished on the same spots a month or two
previously (Plate IV. fig. 76). The pustules are by no means minute,
but elongated and bullate; the spores beautifully studded with warts
(Plate IV. fig. 77). This species cannot certainly be identical with
Puccinia compositarum (Schlecht), P. syngenesiarum (Lk.), or P.
tragopogonis (Corda). In none of these do the spores appear to be
warted, and the habits of both the latter are different. Its nearest
associate appears to be P. centauriæ (Corda), at least in the fruit,
and whilst the form and character of these organs are considered of
any value in the determination of species, smooth spores cannot be
associated, we think, with tuberculate or echinulate spores under the
same name.
In the spores of the species to which attention has been more
specially directed we have types of the principal forms. In the “corn-
mildew” they are elongated, and tapering towards either end; in the
“coronated brand” the apex is crowned with spicular processes; in
the “wind-flower brand” the entire spores are echinulate; in the
“mint brand” they are globose; in the “composite brand” elliptic; in
the “earth-nut brand,” nearly cut in two at the septum; and in the
“dandelion brand,” so variable in form that no two are precisely alike.
On the other hand, all are characterized by a transverse septum
dividing each spore into two cells.
CHAPTER V.

COMPLEX BRANDS.

F ROM the twin-spored genus we pass to another, in which the


spores are usually divided into three cells, and which, from this
cause, has been named Triphragmium. Only one species has hitherto
been found in this country, and that not very commonly, on the
leaves of the meadow-sweet, Spiræa ulmaria (Plate III. fig. 47).
Externally, it much resembles, in the size and character of the
pustules, many of the above-named brands, but when seen under
the microscope this similarity disappears. In general outline the
spores are nearly globose, and externally papillose. In one species,
found on the Continent, but not hitherto in Great Britain, the spores
are covered with curious long-hooked spines, by means of which
they adhere tenaciously to each other. In germination, the spores of
Triphragmium do not offer any noteworthy deviation from those of
Puccinia,[5] and the chief interest of our indigenous species lies in the
three-celled form of its spores (fig. 48), to which occasionally those
of Puccinia variabilis approximate, and may be regarded as the link
which unites the two genera.
5. Mr. Currey has only seen the tips of the germinating threads swell, and
become septate, each of the joints thus formed falling off and germinating
without producing spherical sporidia; whilst Tulasne figures globular sporidia,
as will be seen in our fig. 49, reduced from the figure by Tulasne.—(Vide
Currey, in “Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,” 1857, pp. 117, &c.)
The old story of “Eyes and no Eyes” is too often literally true, not
only with the children it was written to amuse and instruct, but also
with children of a larger growth who scorn such baby tales, and
disdain such baby morals. Out of more than a thousand indigenous
species of microscopic fungi, of which there is generally some
evidence afforded of their presence visible to the naked eye, how
few are there of the millions that inhabit our island who can count
twenty species that they have ever seen; still fewer that have
noticed one hundred. Amongst the twenty species known to the few
will probably be included one which appears in autumn in prominent
black spots, the size of a large pin’s head, or half a turnip seed, with
the flat face downwards, sprinkling the under surface of blackberry
leaves (fig. 39); with larger, reddish, purplish, or reddish-brown
spots on the upper to indicate the presence of the fungus beneath.
Just at the time when blackberries are ripe, these spots are in
perfection on the leaves, and their eyes must have been sadly at
fault who could ever have gathered their own blackberries without
seeing the discoloured leaves. The coloured spots on the face of the
leaf are due to the diseased state of the tissues caused by the
parasite on the opposite surface. As much of the leaf as contains
two or three of the black pustules should be removed carefully with
a knife or sharp scissors, and submitted to microscopical
examination; each will be seen to consist of a dense tuft of blackish,
elongated, stalked bodies, clustered as in fig. 44, but much more
numerously and closely packed together. These are the spores of the
blackberry brand (Aregma bulbosum, Fr.). A few of these spores
should be removed on the point of a sharp penknife, placed on a
glass slide with a drop of distilled water or alcohol, covered with thin
glass, and then viewed with a quarter-inch objective. Each spore has
a stalk longer than itself, thickened below, and containing a yellow
granular core. The spore itself is much longer than in any of the
Pucciniæ, of a dark brown colour, and apparently divided by several
transverse partitions into three, four, or more cells, the whole
surface being covered with minute warts or prominences (Plate III.
fig. 41).
In 1857, Mr. F. Currey investigated the structure of these spores,
and the results of these experiments were detailed in the “Quarterly
Journal of Microscopical Science.” One conclusion arrived at was,
that “the idea of the fruit consisting of sporidia united together and
forming a chain, is certainly not in accordance with the true
structure. The sporidia are not united to one another in any way,
but, although closely packed for want of space, they are in fact free
in the interior of what may be called a sporangium or ascus.” To
arrive at this conclusion, careful examination was necessary, and
new modes of manipulation essential. The details of one method
employed were to the following effect:—A sufficient number of
spores were removed on the point of a lancet, and placed on a slide
in a drop of alcohol. Before the spirit was quite evaporated, two or
three drops of strong nitric acid were added, and the whole covered
with thin glass. The slide was then warmed over a spirit-lamp, the
acid not being allowed to boil, but only gradually heated to boiling
point. By this means the fruit was found to consist of an outer
membrane, nearly transparent, and studded with tubercles; that this
membrane enclosed a number of cells which constituted the
apparent joints, and which were naturally flattened at either end by
mutual pressure. When the outer membrane was dissolved or
ruptured, these cells escaped, and became detached from each
other. The cells, thus set free, exhibited a brownish or yellow ring
around a paler area, in the interior of which an inner cell was visible,
sometimes globular, often irregular in shape. The examination of the
ring was not entirely satisfactory; it appeared to be sometimes
marked with concentric lines having the appearance of wrinkles. The
inner cell had granular contents and a central nucleus. When
perfectly free they were spherical in form, with a distinct membrane
of their own; and colourless, except when acted upon by reagents.
The means employed to determine the existence of these cells was
to soak the spores in muriatic acid; then, upon pressure of the glass
cover, the outer membrane and ringed cells were ruptured, and the
inner cell escaped (Plate III. fig. 46).
Germination may be induced in these spores by keeping them in a
moist atmosphere (fig. 45); but the mode does not differ from that
described above as occurring in the “corn mildew.” Mr. Currey writes:
—“I know no microscopical object of greater beauty than a number
of fruits of Phragmidium in active germination.” By Phragmidium he
means the Aregma of this work, of which Phragmidium is a
synonyme.
Well may the reader remark on arriving thus far, “Does all this
examination and detail refer to the fruit borne in the little blackish
spots on bramble leaves, which I have hitherto overlooked?” Ay, and
to several similar spots on other plants. Examine carefully the
raspberry leaves in your garden, and you will probably find similar,
but smaller, pustules also on the under surface (Plate III. fig. 42).
We say probably, because none of our British species seem to be
equally uncommon with this. During the past year we examined
hundreds of plants, and did not find a single pustule. This species
was named by Dr. Greville Aregma gracilis, which name it still
continues to bear (fig. 43). Such a fate will not await you if you
should proceed in the autumn to some chalky district where the
burnet is common. Go, for instance, to Greenhithe or Northfleet, on
the North Kent Railway, in August or September, where the burnet is
plentiful, and the leaves will present the appearance of having been
peppered beneath, from the number of minute pustules of the
burnet brand scattered over the under surface (fig. 30, upper
leaflets). Or if you prefer collecting nearer home, visit some
neighbouring garden, if your own does not contain many roses, and
the leaves will be found equally prolific in an allied species (fig. 36).
Should gardens and roses be alike unattainable, any bank or wood
will furnish the barren strawberry (Potentilla fragariastrum), and
during the latter part of the summer, or in autumn, another species
of Aregma will not be uncommon on the under surface of the leaves
(fig. 33). All these species will be found accompanied by the orange
spores of species of Lecythea, which some mycologists consider to
be distinct fungi, and others to be merely forms or conditions of
Aregma. These spores are represented in Plate III. figs. 31, 34, 37,
and 40. From the magnified figures of the spores of the different
species of Aregma (figs. 32, 35, 38, 41, and 43), it will be apparent
that they have all certain features in common, i.e., cylindrical spores
containing from three to seven cells. This may be called the generic
character, common to all the species of the genus Aregma. Again,
each species will be observed to possess its own distinct features,
which may be termed its specific character. In one, the apex of the
spores will be obtuse, in another acutely pointed, in another bluntly
pointed, &c. In one species the number of cells will usually be four,
in another five or six, in another seven or eight. The stem in one
species will be slender and equal, in another thickened or bulbous.
So that in all there will be some permanent peculiarity for each not
shared by the others.
One other form of brand (Xenodochus carbonarius), presenting, it
is believed by some, generic differences from all that we have as yet
noticed, remains to be briefly alluded to. This form appears to be
very uncommon in this country, but, when found, is parasitic on the
leaves of the great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), a plant of local
distribution. The parasite appears to the naked eye in small tufts or
pustules resembling those of an Aregma, but, when microscopically
examined, the cells of the spores are found to be numerous, indeed,
considerably more than in the most complex Aregma (fig. 29). This,
however, seems to be the only distinction, for the cells are free in
the interior of the investing membrane, and in all points of structure,
in so far as it has been examined, identical with Aregma. Whether it
is logical to consider a four-celled spore an Aregma, and a seven-
celled spore an Aregma, and exclude a ten or twelve-celled spore
from the same genus on account of the number of its cells, does not
appear to us clearly answerable in the affirmative.
During the course of this and the preceding chapter we have
passed rapidly through four genera of parasitic fungi so nearly allied,
that one is almost led to doubt the validity of the generic
distinctions. These may be presented briefly thus:—
Spores two-celled Puccinia.
Spores three-celled Triphragmium.
Spores four to seven- Aregma.
celled
Spores many-celled Xenodochus.
It has been seen that the habit, mode of growth, germination, and
structure, except in the number of cells, scarcely differ; but it is not
our province here to enter upon the discussion of such a subject.
The association of one-celled, orange-coloured spores with the
brown two or more celled spores passed in review is another feature
worthy of a passing notice, and which opens a field for discussion. It
is generally admitted that these two forms are the production of the
self-same mycelium or vegetative system, but it is not so generally
admitted that they are but two forms or phases of the fruit of the
same plant. It is not at all uncommon in the history of mycology to
find two forms which were for a long time considered to be distinct
plants producing different forms of fruit, and which bore different
names, and were located in different genera, at length proved to be
only the self-same plant in different conditions, and ending in one
name being expunged from the list. Such a fate probably awaits, at
no distant date, the orange spores which precede or accompany the
species in the present genera. Already Tulasne and some others
accord them no place in their system.
It may be added, for the benefit of any who wish to pursue the
study of this interesting branch of Cryptogamic Botany, that the
leaves of the plants containing the parasitic fungi now noticed may
be collected and preserved by drying between folds of blotting-
paper, or the leaves of a book, and will retain their character, with
the exception of colour in the orange forms, so as to be eligible for
examination at any period of the year for twenty years to come.
Each species, when dry, may be transferred to an old envelope, and
labelled outside with the name, date of collection, and locality; and
one hundred such envelopes will constitute a miniature herbarium in
a very small compass.
CHAPTER VI.

SMUTS.

O NE of the fungal diseases of corn long and widely known has


obtained amongst agriculturists different appellations in different
localities. In some it is the “smut,” in others it is respectively “dust-
brand,” “bunt-ear,” “black-ball,” and “chimney-sweeper,” all referring,
more or less, to the blackish soot-like dust with which the infected
and abortive ears are covered. This fungus does not generally excite
so much concern amongst farmers as the other affections to which
their corn-crops are liable. Perhaps it is not really so extensively
injurious, although it entirely destroys every ear of corn upon which
it establishes itself. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, and many grasses are
subject to its attacks, and farmers have been heard to declare that
they like to see a little of it, because its presence proves the general
excellence of the whole crop. No one who has passed through a field
of standing corn, after its greenness has passed away, but before it
is fully ripe, can have failed to notice, here and there, a spare, lean-
looking ear, completely blackened with a coating of minute dust
(Plate V. fig. 98). If he has been guilty of brushing in amongst the
corn, it will still be remembered how his hands and clothing became
dusted with this powder; and if at the time he should have been clad
in sombre black, evidence will have been afforded—in the rusty-
looking tint of the powder when sprinkled upon his black
continuations—that, however sooty this powder might appear whilst
still adhering to the ears of corn, it has an evident brown tint when
in contact with one’s clothes. This powder, minute as it is, every
granule of it constitutes a spore or protospore capable of
germination, and ultimately, after several intermediate stages, of
reproducing a fungus like the parent of which it formed a part.
During the growth of the plant its virulent contents flow like a poison
through the innermost tissues, and at length attack the peduncle or
axis of the spikelets of the ear, raising up the essential organs and
reducing them to a rudimentary state. Brongniart, who made 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?
Like many of the parasitic fungi, so destructive in the farm and the
garden, this species belongs to the family in which the spores are
the distinctive feature. After many botanical changes, the “smut” is
at length regarded as a fixed resident in the genus Ustilago; with the
specific name of segetum, which latter signifies “standing corn;” it is
therefore the Ustilago, or smut of the standing corn. The characters
of the genus are, chiefly, that the spores are simple and deeply
seated, springing from delicate threads, or in closely-packed cells,
ultimately breaking up into a powdery mass. Fifteen members of this
genus have been described as British. One of these (U. maydis)
attacks the maize or Indian corn grown in this country in a similar
manner as the common smut attacks wheat or barley; but as maize
is not an established crop with us, a more minute description of this
species is unnecessary; the spores are figured in Plate V. fig. 108.
Another species (U. hypodytes) makes its appearance at first
beneath the sheaths of the leaves surrounding the stems of grasses
(fig. 100), and ultimately appears above and around them as a
purplish-black dust (fig. 101). The seeds of sedges, the leaves and
stems of certain definite species of grass, the flowers of scabious
(Plate VI. figs. 123-125), the receptacles of the goatsbeard, the
anthers of the bladder campion, and other allied plants, and the
seeds of the Bistort family, are all liable, more or less, to the attacks
of one or other of the residue of the fifteen species of Ustilago
already referred to as indigenous to Britain.
Plate V.
W. West imp.

Although we do not profess to teach practical men how to grow


good corn, or how they shall get rid of, or keep clear from, the many
foes to which their crops are exposed, yet a suggestion may be
offered, based upon the facts obtained in our botanical researches,
supported by the analogy of allied circumstances. In this instance
the extreme minuteness and profusion of the spores would evidently
render all the corn liable to the attachment of, perhaps only two or
three, spores to the seed coat. Some ears of corn in nearer
proximity to the smutted ears may be covered with spores which yet
remain invisible to the naked eye, and when these grains are mixed
with others in the heap, the chances are not much in favour of any
handful not becoming charged with spores. If the majority of these
were not redeemed from destruction by the many changes,
shiftings, rubbings, and scrubbings to which the seed corn is liable
between the time of its reaping and the period of its sowing, we
might expect a very large crop of “smutted” corn. Under ordinary
circumstances we can scarcely imagine that the loss arising from
infected ears would repay much special labour to prevent it, only
that to a large extent the precautions taken to cleanse the seed corn
from the spores of one fungus will also avail for another, and while
cleaning it of the spores of “smut,” those of “bunt” will also be
removed. The facts that we rely upon chiefly as indicating the
remedy are that the spores are only superficially in contact with the
seed corn, and that they are of less specific gravity, causing them to
float on the surface of any fluid in which the corn may be immersed.
Again, the spores of many species of fungi will not germinate after
saturation with certain chemical solutions. One of the most
successful and easy of application is a strong solution of Glauber’s
salts, in which the seed corn is to be washed, and afterwards, whilst
still moist, dusted over with quick-lime. The rationale of this process
consists in the setting free of caustic soda by the sulphuric acid of
the Glauber’s salt combining with the lime, and converting it into
sulphate of lime. The caustic soda is fatal to the germination of the
spores of “bunt,” and probably also of “smut;” although, as already
intimated, except in cases where these affections of the corn are
very prevalent, we shall be informed by the agriculturist that the
cost of labour in the prevention will not be compensated in the cure.
Experience has also taught us that many fungi flourish in
proportion to the wetness of the season, or dampness of the locality.
A wet year is always exceedingly prolific in fungi, and a dry season
correspondingly barren, at least in many kinds, whilst others, as the
experience of 1864 has convinced us, are exceedingly common. In a
field or wood the mycologist reaps his richest harvest of mycological
specimens in the lowest and dampest spots, in swamps, ditches, and
ill-drained nooks. This is a fact worth knowing as much by the
farmer as the amateur botanist in search of specimens for his
herbarium.
One of the most unmistakable species of “smut” is that which
infests the goatsbeard, on which we have already described an
Æcidium. Generally about the same time as the cluster-cups make
their appearance on the leaves, some of the unopened flower-heads
of this plant will be found considerably altered in appearance by the
shortening of the segments of the involucre, and at length by the
whole inflorescence being invested with a copious purplish-black
dust. If, by any means, the lobes of the involucre are any of them
separated, the enclosed dust escapes, blackening the fingers and
clothing of the collector, as if it were soot (Plate V. fig. 92). A little of
this dust submitted to the microscope will be found to consist of
myriads of small globose spores, nearly uniform in size and shape;
and if a higher power be employed, each of these will appear to
have a papillose or minutely granulated surface. The florets, dwarfed
in size and contorted, or the remains of them, are embedded in the
mass of spores (fig. 93), and if one or two of these are removed and
placed under a good one-inch objective, every part will be found
covered with adhering spores, to the apparent exhaustion of its
substance. Of course, the florets are never developed when
subjected to the attack of “smut.” The whole plant assumes a faded,
sickly appearance, even before the spores are fully ripened. We
would recommend our readers, if they collect one of the infected
flower-heads, to put it into a box or paper by itself, for if placed in
the box with other specimens it will so sprinkle them with its black
powder as to render them nearly useless for microscopic
examination: everywhere the microscope will detect, where the
unaided eye failed to recognize a trace, the ubiquitous spores of
Ustilago receptaculorum (Plate V. fig. 94).
In the fenny districts of the eastern counties a species of “smut”
called Ustilago typhoides attacks the stems of reeds, forming thick
swollen patches of several inches in length (fig. 128), sometimes
occupying the whole space between two joints or nodes, and lying
beneath the sheath of the leaves. The spores in this species are
larger than in the species which attacks the culms of grasses in a
similar manner (Plate VI. fig. 129).
There are not many features in the rest of the species of this
genus of sufficient interest to the general reader or microscopist to
render it advisable to furnish any detailed account of them. We may,
however, note that in a species found on the leaves of the common
cock’s-foot grass the spores are large, obovate, and rough, with
minute granules (figs. 117, 118). This species is known botanically
as Ustilago salveii, and externally bears considerable resemblance,
except in the size and colour of the spores (fig. 119), to another
species much more common, and which occurs on the leaves of Poa
aquatica and P. fluitans. The last-named species forms long parallel
sori, extending often for several inches along the leaves of the
aquatic grasses just named, giving them a very singular appearance
(Plate V. figs. 105, 106). The spores are small (fig. 107), not being
more than one-fourth the length of the last species, and smooth,
whilst those are minutely granulated.
An interesting species occurs, very rarely, on the stems of such
grasses as Aira cæspitosa and A. aquatica. The sori are in bands at
regular distances apart (Plate VI. fig. 120), each band being
composed of a number of short parallel sori (fig. 121). The spores
are not more than one-third of the size of those in U. longissima.
Sedges are also subject to attack from other species of smut; one
of these (U. olivacea) appears to convert the seeds into a fine olive-
coloured dust (Plate VI. fig. 126), which gives to the fruit a similar
appearance to that presented by corn when attacked by Ustilago
segetum. Another species, which also absorbs the seeds, becomes
hardened and consolidated more than in any other species, and,
though larger than the normal seeds, still retaining their form (figs.
109, 110). This is Ustilago urceolorum, the spores of which are also
figured (fig. 111).
The beaksedge (Rhyncospora alba) suffers from an allied species
which affects it in a similar manner (Plate V. figs. 96, 97), but is not
equally common. The spores of Ustilago utriculosa, found on
different species of Polygonum, instead of being granulated, are
reticulated on the surface (Plate VI. figs. 114, 116). The chief
interest attaching to Ustilago antherarum consists in its habitat, for it
is developed in the anthers of the flowers of the bladder campion,
and other plants of the same natural order. The anthers are much
swollen and distorted by this parasite, which is not uncommon,
though easily overlooked unless specially sought after (Plate V. figs.
102-104). A list of all the British species will be found at the close of
this volume. It will be noted that as in the genus Æcidium the
prevailing colour of the spores is orange, so in the genus Ustilago it
is black, with a purplish or violaceous tinge.
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.
If we break open a grain of wheat infested with the “stinking rust”
or “bunt,” and then place some of the powder in a drop of water on
a glass slide, and submit this to the microscope, first using the half-
inch power, then the quarter, or fifth, and finally an eighth or tenth,
we shall find that this minute dust consists of myriads of globose
brown bodies termed spores, which possess certain reproductive
functions. These spores will be found mixed with a number of
delicate branched threads, to which they are attached by a short
stalk or pedicel, visible with the higher powers (fig. 86). The surface
of the spores you will also observe to be beautifully reticulated.
These features just described as visible in the “bunt” are the
characteristics of the genus to which it belongs (Tilletea), and of
which it is the only British species. An allied species infests the
Sorghum or durra, a grain but little cultivated in Europe, but found
extensively in Africa and Asia, and also apparently found on the
Bajra of India.
The interesting experiments of the Rev. M. J. Berkeley on the
germination of “bunt” spores have been already alluded to. They
were undertaken shortly after the outbreak of the potato disease, to
ascertain, if possible, the mode by which the minute spores of fungi
inoculate growing plants; and although at that time only a bare
suspicion of the nature of the bodies resulting from the germination
of “bunt” spores was entertained, succeeding examinations in the
same direction have brought to light extraordinary facts, and
manifested the progress of the successive developments of four
generations. The spores of “bunt” are larger than those of the
different species of “smut,” and reticulated on the surface (Plate V.
fig. 86). When these are made to germinate a kind of stem is
protruded (fig. 87), upon which small clusters of elongated thread-
like spores of the second generation, or sporidia, are produced (fig.
88). After a time these spores conjugate, or become united by short
transverse processes in the same manner as has been observed in
some of the lower forms of Algæ (fig. 89). The conjugated spores in
the next stage germinate and produce a third kind of fruit, different
from either of the preceding, and constituting a third generation (fig.
90). These in turn germinate and produce a fourth order of
reproductive organs (fig. 91), so that in the process of growth the
“bunt” spores evidently pass through four generations. Hence, as
one result, the number of germinating bodies is greatly increased, as
well as their power of inflicting injury in a corresponding diminution
in size. There are still many points in the history of the growth and
development through successive generations of the “bunt” spores,
but enough is known, on the one hand, to show that this is a true
vegetative parasite, and not merely a diseased condition of the
tissues of the wheat plant, and on the other that it is perfectly
distinct from all the phases of the other and similar parasitic fungi
which affect the wheat crop.
CHAPTER VII.

COMPLEX SMUTS.

S OME of the microscopic fungi are the most unpromising and


uninteresting objects to the naked eye which could well be
imagined. No one would suppose that the black dust so profusely
shed in such genera as Ustilago and Polycystis could be better than
as much soot; unless he has learnt by experience not to judge by
appearances, but to suspend judgment until examination. The axiom
will sooner or later force itself upon all who examine minute objects
with the microscope, that all organic nature, whether animal or
vegetable, increases in interest in proportion to the magnifying
power. Seen by the unaided eye, moulds are all nearly alike, and
they seem to be “moulds” and nothing more. “Smuts,” again,
sometimes attack one organ, and sometimes another, with very little
variation in colour; and “rusts” are all “only rusts” with a paler or
more intense rusty tint, until the marvellous combination of lenses,
so appropriately named a microscope, unfolds a new world, and
exposes its new inhabitants unparalleled in the old world of larger
life, in form, habit, development, and mystery.
A very interesting, though small group of fungi, allied to the
preceding, are included botanically under the genus called Polycystis,
in allusion to the many cells of which the spores are composed.[6] In
the most recent work on British Fungi, approximating to a Flora—
viz., “Berkeley’s Outlines”—only three species are recorded, whilst
the most common, at least around London, is omitted in error; for it
could scarcely have been unknown as indigenous to this country.
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