22 ON EBGOT. 



conceptacle opening through the conical swelling is obvious ; this 

 gives the granular aspect to the head of the fungus. Four of the 

 sacs or asci are represented at h, still more magnified. They are 

 seen to be filled with slender needle-shaped bodies, which are the 

 ultimate and perfect reproductive spores of the ergot. A few of 

 these spores are represented still more magnified at c. 



Having traced the history of the ergot, we may now enquire how 

 and at what time the crops get infected, with the view of seeing 

 whether it is possible to dicover any means of alleviating, if not of 

 destroying, this injurious parasite. At two different stages in the 

 life of ergot, bodies are produced which have the power of propa- 

 gating the disease, namely the spores of the perfect fungus developed 

 irom the ergot, or the "spores," (spermatia) of the early sphacelia 

 state of the parasite. The plant is carried over the winter in the 

 dormant ergot condition. A large proportion of the ergot in a field, 

 when it is fully ripe, falls to the ground during the operations of the 

 harvest, or by the friction of the spikes against each other through 

 tlie action of the wind. These ergots remain on the ground during 

 the winter without undergoing any change. They are dormant like 

 the seeds of plants, until the following spring or summer, when they 

 produce crops of the perfect fungus {Claviceps purpurea, Tul.). The 

 spores of the Claviceps are ripe about the time that the cereals 

 come into flower, and by the action of wind or rain they obtain 

 access to the flowers. In 1856 Durieu communicated ergot to rye 

 by placing the spores of the Claviceps on its flowers. E,oze has since 

 confirmed and extended these observations ("Bulletin Soc. Bot. de 

 France," 1870). 



It is, then, by these minute needle-like spores that the disease is 

 communicated at first to all crops ; and the principal effort of the 

 farmer who desires to free himself from this pest should be to secure 

 clean seed, perfectly free from ergot. The ergot is too frequently over- 

 looked in the barn from its resemblance to the dung of mice ; but it is 

 "\^ orth special pains in examining the seed to secure immunity from 

 this parasite. Tulasne states as the result of his experiments that if 

 the ergot does not produce the Claviceps during the first year after it 

 has fallen to the ground, it loses its vital powers. One might hope to 

 find in this obseivation of Tulasne the means of coping with the 

 disease ; and certainly it is most desirable not to follow an ergotted 

 crop with another crop of cereals. But it must be remembered that 

 the same species of fungus produces an ergot in most of our grasses, 

 and that the spores produced from the Claviceps of these grass 

 ergots will as readily communicate the disease as those produced 

 by cereals. "We may, therefore, have in ergotted grasses growing 

 in the margin of fields or along hedge-banks the means of main- 

 taining and spreading the disease in cereal crops. No trouble should 

 be spared to collect and detsroy the ergots on such grasses. To per- 

 mit them to fall to the ground is a certain method of secuiing the 

 appearance of the disease on any cereal or grass crops in the neigh- 

 bourhood in the following year. 



But the disease having once appeared in a field of growing grain, 

 or amongst hay or grass, it easily spreads in its early sphacelia state. 

 Every one of the " spores " (spermatia) has the power, as we have 



