these bodies being joined t 
On extending this examination to the anthers, 
450 Mr. Sxirn's Observations on the Cause of Ergot. 
as it has the smell of sugar and water, it occurred to me that the object of 
the fly's visits was to feed on this liquid. I collected part of this fluid in 
a phial, and on examining it in the microscope I found it entirely composed 
of myriads of generally uniform oblong transparent bodies, like sporidia of 
a fungus, slightly bent, with one indistinct spot near each end; these spo- 
ridia-like bodies freely dispersed on diluting the viscid fluid with water, but 
retained their forms: I at the moment considered them to be the sporidia of 
the ergot, and I was led the more to believe so, as on applying a drop of water 
to a full-grown ergot, multitudes of them became disengaged from its surface, 
and from the cracks or longitudinal fissures, which generally characterize the 
ergot, the water so impregnated having a milky appearance. 
I also found the same bodies on the glumes and other parts, with which 
the liquid, having run, had come in contact, and which, when hardened 
by evaporation, gave the parts a dark appearance. 
On further examination I found the same bodies on ergots of all sizes, even 
on the youngest, and on opening yet unexpanded florets towards the apex of 
ergot-bearing spikes, I frequently detected them on the surface of different 
parts of the fructification, especially on the anthers and ovarium, and in little 
clusters on the hairs and feathery stigmas. Many florets, however, were de- 
stitute of them. 
Now as these bodies have been found to accompany the ergot through all 
its stages, and are present before the impregnation of the ovarium, at least be- 
fore the discharge of the pollen, and, consequently, before there is any appear- 
ance of an ergot being about to be formed, they cannot be its seeds, but no 
doubt are in some way the primary cause of it; and it now remains to deter- 
mine what these sporidia-like bodies are. On examining an ergot of Elymus 
(or of any other grass) before it has been moistened, its surface is seen to have 
a 9 — or dirty White colour), which viewed in the microscope is seen like a 
"m a sas appearance, and readily separating on the 
ing this crust ina dry state se e idc 5 . 
> Me pruinose appearance is seen to be caused by 
ogether lengthways into slightl 1051 
and thus forming a crust. ys into slightly elevated spicula, 
where they appear to me first 
