On Err/ot. 



453 



Fig. 14. 



tions 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 complete history of the plant. 



In its earliest 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 plant 

 is attacked the ergot becomes visible, ap- 

 pearing as a yellowish viscous substance 

 resting on the outer coating of the as yet 

 undeveloped attacked grain (Fig. 14). 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 de- 

 velopes, carrying upwards the aborted re- 

 mains 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 ^ Grain of Rye 



, , , , 11-1 1 ^'^^^y^ °'' ^p'^'' 



had been observed early in the century by Eigoi 

 Bauer, though none of his figures were 



published till 1841. He had noticed its relation to the outer 

 covering of the seed, and had supposed it to be an altered con- 

 dition 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. John 

 Smith and Quekett, in 1841, published descriptions of the struc- 

 ture of this sphacelia condition, as far as they were able to observe 

 it. 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 Ergotcetia 

 ahortifaciens, while Berkeley and Broome, believing it to be a 

 true Oidium, removed it to that genus under the name O. ahorti- 

 faciens. Bauer's drawings are singularly accurate representations 

 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 



covered with 

 phacelia, state of 

 Twice the natural 



