The Scottish Naturalist. 187 



In proof of this theory, if a quantity of Ergot, bearing the 

 fungus nearly ripe, is put into a small clear bottle, the process 

 of sporing may be watched. The pileus, smooth at first, is 

 known to be ripe when the mouths of the conceptacles begin 

 to pout in protuberances above the general surface. If the 

 bottle is held up in the bright sunshine so as to give the 

 proper reflection, instantly a head here and there begins to 

 open its batteries, and to discharge a shower of needles in all 

 directions. These needle-spores are about half a hundredth of 

 an inch in length, and can easily be seen with the naked eye 

 floating about in glittering shoals in the bottle. It would ap- 

 pear that they are shot into the air by elastic pressure, brought 

 to a crisis by the expansion by the light and heat ; for whenever 

 the pressure (as it seems) has been withdrawn by the projec- 

 tion of a certain number, the remainder, or some of them, are 

 merely pushed to the mouth of the ascus and fall over on the 

 surface. 



But of course it is obvious that although there may be plenty 

 of spores flying about, if the season is unfavourable to the til- 

 lering of the grasses, there will be fewer late-flowering spikes 

 thrown up, and so a defective crop of Ergot from the want of 

 nests to be hatched in. At any spot where the grass is much 

 ergotised in one year, it is more ergotised in the same place 

 the following year than the grass at a short distance. 



When the parts of a recently-opened grass floret have been 

 attacked by a flying spore, there soon appears a drop of fluid 

 adhering to the pales. Some ears of rye which I had inserted 

 into a test tube containing many ripe heads from the Ergot of 

 Glyceriafliiitans, were placed as they grew, in the inside of a 

 clear bottle with the bottom out. This protected them from 

 rain and wind. In a few days drops began to appear at various 

 florets, increasing to large dimensions. These drops have a 

 strong and peculiar smell. At the bottom of them there accu- 

 mulates a deposit of spermatia, which must be exuded from the 

 growing Ergot. But it seems clear that the great masses of 

 fluid must be drawn from the air. These were constantly 

 visited during the day by about six species of diptera, which 

 drank part of the fluid, or the sperm it contained. A portion 

 of the fluid was collected by a dipping tube every morning and 

 put into a small phial. 



Some other neighbouring spikes became affected which had 

 not been artificially touched ; but whether the flies had carried 



