ON EEGOT. 17 



been produced by the use of darnell have been really caused by the 

 unobserved ergot. The frequency with which Rye-grass is attacked 

 has often been noticed. Edward Carroll says he never failed to dis- 

 cover it more or less ergotted in fields allowed to stand for seed, and 

 he adds, what appears to be opposed to general experience, that its 

 extent is in proportion to the wet or dry state of the summer months 

 during its maturation, being rarer when wet, frequent when dry. 

 The probable explanation of this reversing of the experience in 

 England and the Continent is, that it is due to the normal moist 

 atmosphere of Ireland, where Mr. Carroll made his observations, 

 being fitted for the germination of the spores of fungi ; while rain 

 would wash the spores off the plants, and a superabundance of water 

 would be unfavourable to their growth. 



No farm or district has any right to hope for exemption from this 

 dangerous pest. It may not have been noticed, or it may have 

 actually been absent for many years, yet it may suddenly, without 

 any obvious cause, appear in great abundance and prove a cause 

 of serious destruction to the cattle or sheep placed in the field where 

 its presence is not suspected. The late Mr. John Curtis, a keen and 

 learned entomologist, who had an accurate knowledge of the British 

 grasses and a quick eye for natural objects, had for thirty years 

 beaten the ground between Southwold and Kessington, on the coast 

 of Suffolk, for insects, and had never noticed any specimens of ergot 

 till the year 1847, when he found it on the spikes of Arundo arenaria, 

 Linn., in such abundance that he estimated that one-sixth, if not one- 

 fourth, of all the ears of this grass in the district were diseased ! 



(" Gard. Chron.," 1847, p. 653.) 



The ergot bears a certain relation to the seed of the plant in which 

 it occurs, but in all it attains a larger size 

 than the normal grain, and is especially 



longer and more horn-like. It occupies the 



place of the seed, but, unlike most of the 



parasitic fungi with which agriculturists are 



acquanted, it sends no roots down into the 



plant, its whole organisation being confined 



to the affected ear. The external surface is 



scaly or somewhat granular, and is generally 



marked by longitudinal and horizontal cracks, 



penetrating into and exposing the interior. 



The colour is black or purple-black, but the 



interior is white or purplish, and of a 



dense homogeneous structure, composed of 



spherical or polygonal cells, so largely charged 



with an oily fluid as to burn freely when 



lighted at a candle. DeCandolle suggested ^^^' 



that this anomalous structure had some affinity to the amorphous in durated 



masses of mycelium which had been uni'ed together in a spurious 



genus, to which was given the name Sclerotium. (El. Eranc , vol. 



v., p. 113.) The illustrious mycologist, Eries, separated it from 



Sclerotium^ and established a genus for its reception, which he 



designated Spermoedia^ Syst. Mycol., vol. ii., p. 368, although he 



doubted whether it should be included among the fungi at all, 



