18 



ON ERGOT. 



coDBidering it rather as only a morbid condition of the seeds of 



The true nature of ergot was at length determined by observations 



first made on its early history and development on the diseased plants,^ 



and then by experiments on the ergot itself, with the view of 



determining its ultimate product. In both directions the most 



satisfactory results have been arrived at, and we now know the com- 

 plete history of the plant. 



In its aarliest condition this parasitic fungus escapes notice, being 



composed of a large number of very small elongated cells borne in a 



colourless liquid. In about three days after the 



first atttJck it becomes visible, appearing as a 



yellowish viscous substance resting on the outer 



(Citing of the as yet undeveloped attacked grain 



(Fig. 5). It exudes from between the glumes 



and more or less completely covers the whole 



seed. It has a taste like honey and an odour 



like that of grated bones. The ears naturally 



attacked do not belong to less vigorous or healthy 



plants than those that escape. Once established, 



the fungus rapidly developes, carrying upwards 



the aborted remains of the seed, crowned with 



the withered styles, and forming below the 



homogeneous sclerotioid mass, which becomes 



the true ergot. The state of the development 



of the ergot had been observed early in the cen- 

 tury by Bauer, though none of his figures weie 



published till 1841. He had noticed its 



relation to the outer covering of the seed, 

 and had supposed it to be an altered condition 

 of that structure (Linn. Trans., vol. xviii., 



p. 475). 



Leveille, in 1826, noticed that the ergot'commenced with this soft 



. covering, and considering it to be a distinct fungus, parasitic on the 

 ergot, he proposed for it the name of Sphacelia, Mem. Soc. Linn, 

 de Paris, vol. v., p. 572. John Smith and Quekett, in 1841, published 

 descriptions of the structure of this sphacelia condition, as far as 

 they were able to observe it, Linn. Trans., vol. xviii., p. 449 and 

 p. 453. They thought it was an amorphous mass of small spherical 

 cells, with a number of larger doubly-nucleated oblong cells scattered 

 among them. 



It was supposed to be the immediate cause of the ergot, and Quekett 

 gave to it the name of Ergotetia alortifaciens, while Berkeley and 

 liroome, believing it to be a true Oidium, removed it to that genus 

 under the name 0. ahortifaciens, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, 

 vol. vii., p. 11. Bauer's drawings are singularly accurate repre- 

 sentations of the general aspect of the disease in its different 

 stages, and while his microscope disclosed to him in 1805 all that 

 Quekett published in 1841, it was not sufficient to exhibit the 

 minute structure as it has been recently described and figured by 

 Tulasne, Ann. des Sc. Nat., Ser. 3, vol. xx., pp. 1-56, PI. i.-iv. 

 In Bauer's drawings (Fig. 6) the sphacelia is represented as 



Fig. 5. 



