142 Mr. E. J. Quekett on the Ergot of Grasses. 



neous plants, or those having the ovary and seed similarly organized and 

 analogous in chemical composition. It may not be improbable that the same 

 fungus can create disease in other seeds, but then the form of the disease 

 would be certainly unlike the figure of an ergot. 



We have learned from Mr. Bauer that he could produce "smut" and some 

 other diseases of grasses, by infecting the plants in early life with the sporules 

 of particular fungi ; it cannot, therefore, be difficult to conceive that other 

 fungi possessing somewhat different effects, may also be taken into the interior 

 of the same plants. The possibility then being proved of the introduction of 

 the germs of fungi into grasses, each producing a different result according 

 to its nature, I cannot help being impressed that the growth of the fungus, 

 which is always found on the exterior of every ergot, can, when it attacks the 

 grain of grasses, so alter its healthy character as to convert it into the dis- 

 eased form so well known by its size and colour from perfect grains of the 

 same plant. 



