218 



BROADLY OPENED ASCOCARPS 



known as ergot in the flowers of rye and other grasses (Fig. 

 153). The mycelium at first spreads over the outer part of the 

 pistil, rapidly forming spores (Fig. 154, A, B) and exuding a 

 sweet slimy juice, honey dew, which is eagerly eaten by flies. In 

 this way the spores are carried away to infest other plants. The 

 mycelium finally completely absorbs the substance of the grain 

 and grows into a hard blue-black body several times larger than 

 the grain (Fig. 153, sc). This body, known as the sclerotium, 

 remains dormant during the winter and in the spring develops 

 a stroma that assumes the form of rose-colored stalks bearing nu- 

 merous ascocarps arranged in globular heads (Fig. 154, C, D). 

 The ascospores germinate in the spring and infest the flowers of 

 the grain. The Chinese wonder, Cordyccps, is a related para- 

 site that attacks caterpillars, larvae of beetles and truffles. In 

 the case of the forms living upon insects, the parasite does not 

 usually appear until the spring, when they are in the pupa or 



^^M, 



^fyptti 



Fig. 155. 



Fig. 156. 



Fig. 155. The stroma of Cordyceps emerging from the pupa of a moth 

 anil forming a club-like organ with numerous ascocarps, as, in its apical 

 region. 



Fig. 156. One of the common cup fungi, Pcziza, with hroadly open 

 ascocarps. Common upon rich humus soil and decaying wood. 



cocoon stage. At this time, the mycelium which flourishes in 

 the tissues of the host, sends up club-like bodies (Fig. 155). 

 that bear the ascocarps as in the case of the ergot. 



90. Forms with Broadly Opened Ascocarps. — The remaining 

 orders of the Ascomycetes include genera in which the ascocarps 



