On Ergot. 



451 



Fi- 11. 



I 



This grass forms a considerable portion of the late meadow crops 

 in many districts. 



I have already in the darnel figured the ergot in a weed in 

 cultivated grounds ; and in the barley-grass (^Hordeum murinum, 

 Linn.), Fig. 10, we have it on one of the most common annual 

 grass-weeds of our road-sides and waste places. Although this is 

 a worthless weed, as it is rejected even by the half-starved animals 

 that feed by the road-side, it may be actively injurious to the 

 agriculturist if it is to any extent a nidus for the growth of ergot. 



Numerous other illustrations might be given, but our figures 

 of the ergot, as it appears in cereals and in pasture and weed 

 grasses, are sufficient to show the general aspect of this parasitic 

 fungus, and to enable the reader easily to detect it. 



A^o 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, vet 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 

 anv specimens of ergot 

 till the year 1847, when 

 he found it on the spikes 

 of Arundo arenaria, 

 Linn., in such abun- 

 dance that he estimated 

 that one-sixth, if not 

 one-fourth, of all the 

 ears of this grass in the 

 district were diseased I 

 ('Gard. Chron.,' 1847, 

 p. ()53.) 



The different draw- 

 ings have shown that 

 the ergot bears a certain 

 relation to the seed of 

 the plant in which it g^'^^^^^^li^ 

 occurs, but that in all 

 it attains a larger size than the normal grain, and is especially 



2 g2 



Fig. 12. 



Fiiio Krgxit on a foreign species 

 of Lyme Grass, J-:hjvius gigan- 

 teus',\iih\. Is' mural size. 



