SECALE CORNUTUM. 171 



ovary or seed. The arguments adduced against the last opinion 

 are in favour of the present one. Though a considerable num- 

 ber of writers have taken this view of the nature of Ergot, then 

 has been great discordance among them as to the causes which 

 produced the disease. 



a. Some have supposed that ordinary morbific causes (such 

 as moisture, combined with warmth) were sufficient to give rise 

 to this diseased condition of the grain. Tessier and W ildenow 

 appear to be of this opinion. 



£. Some have ascribed the disease to the attack of insects 

 or other animals. Tillet, Fontana, Read, and Field supported 

 this view, which, I may add, has subsequently been satisfactorily 

 disproved. 



7 



Some, dissatisfied 



>/ 



the disease, have been content with declaring Ergot to be a 



specifying 



it. M 

 Mr. 



or 



them 



tifc 



were contained; the plants which were produced by the germi- 

 nation of the grains were all ergotized. Mr. Quekett, who has 

 most carefully examined the development of Ergot, says that 

 the first appearance of Ergot is observed by the young grain 

 and its appendages becoming covered with a white coating com- 

 posed of multitudes of sporidia, mixed with minute cobweb-like 

 filaments. This coating extends over all the other parts of the 

 grain, cements the anthers and stigmas together, and gives the 

 whole a mildewed appearance. When the grain is immersed 

 in water, the sporidia fall to the bottom of the liquid. 



If we examine the Ergot when about half-grown, we find it 

 just beginning to show itself above the paleae, and presenting a 

 purplish-black colour. By this time it has lost, in part, its 

 white coating, and the production of sporidia and filaments 

 has nearly ceased ; at the upper portion of the grain the 

 coating now presents a vermiform appearance, which Leveille 



Q 



