PROCEEDINGS 



LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



November 6, 1838. 

 Edward Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



The Society assembled this evening for the Session. 



The Vice President stated that the late Nathaniel John Winch, 

 Esq., A.L.S., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, had bequeathed to the So- 

 ciety his entire herbarium, consisting of upwards of 12,000 species 

 of plants, and his library of Natural History. 



Read, " Observations on the cause of Ergot." By Mr. John 

 Smith, A.L.S., of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. 



Mr. Smith, like many others, had supposed that the ergot of rye 

 was an organized fungus, growing in the florets of the rye and other 

 grasses, but in the early part of October his attention was particu- 

 larly directed to the subject by observing several large drops of a 

 brown- coloured fluid suspended from a spike of a species of Elymus, 

 in which were several full-grown ergots, and others in a younger state. 

 The fluid was viscid and had a saccharine flavour. On subjecting 

 a portion of it to the microscope, it was found to be full of innume- 

 rable minute, oblong, transparent bodies, varying from the 3000th 

 to the 7000th of an inch, and resembling the sporules of fungi, and 

 slightly bent, having a somewhat indistinct spot at each end. On 

 applying a drop of water to a full-grown ergot, multitudes of these 

 bodies became disengaged from its surface, and issued from the 

 cracks or longitudinal fissures which generally characterize the fully 

 developed ergot. These bodies imparted to the water a milky ap- 

 pearance. He observed the same bodies on ergots of all ages and 

 sizes, and on opening the unexpanded flowers of ergot-bearing spikes, 

 they were met with in abundance on the diff"erent organs, especially 

 on the anthers ; for on cutting an anther and applying water, they 



No. I. — Proceedings of the Linnean Society. 



