238 



Griffiths: A new Ergot 



vicinity of an abandoned roadbed, while covered with a rather 

 shorter growth of grass than the remainder of the patch, was as 

 badly infested as any the writer has ever seen. Here there was 

 scarcely a perfect seed produced, each being replaced by the scle- 



FlG. I. 



Fig. i. Spike showing sclerotia. 



Fig. 2. 



^ Fig. 2. i. Sclerotium, X 3- 2 - Stroma, X 8. 3. Section of stroma, X 25, from 

 microtome section. 4. Section of base of sclerotium, X 5- 5- Surface of sclerotium 



showing reticulations, X 8. 6. Section of sclerotium 



near the apex, X IO - 7- 



Conidia, X 285. 8. Ascus, X 285. 9 and 10. Groups of young asci, X 285. II 

 Portion of a spore, X 6°°- 1 2. Perithecium, X 45- 



rotium of an ergot. Several heads were found with as many as 

 twenty sclerotia produced in each. 



The development of the ascosporic stage from the sclerotium 

 is of considerable interest and importance inasmuch as the sclero- 

 tia grow readily, whereas, every botanist who has attempted to 

 cultivate the sclerotia of the various forms of Claviceps purpurea, 

 knows how difficult and uncertain is their development. It is a 



