76 



dreadful effects it produces on the human frame, when it 

 exists in considerable quantities in bread corn (as it often does 

 in rye, in the north of Europe) causing the most terrible 

 ulcers and gangrenes, which at length destroy the limbs. 



However, every evil has a counter-balancing good,aDd Ergot 

 is not altogether vile ; as in the hands of medical men it has 

 been found to be a valuable medicine, though I understand 

 that its action is uncertain. This may be owing to the fact 

 that the quality of the ergot varies with its place of growth 

 and other circumstances. The best (from a medical point of 

 view) is said to come from rye plants grown in dry airy 

 situations on a sandy or chalky soil, whereas Ergot grown in 

 damp shady valleys is of inferior quality. Moreover the plant 

 has no dangerous action until it is quite ripe, but as a week 

 is sufficient to bring it to maturity there is not much consola- 

 tion in that. There are two kinds recognised, one of which is 

 purple inside when the Ergot is broken across, whereas the 

 other has a white interior. Our present specimens belong to 

 the latter category. 



Of its history in this island I know nothing, never having 

 had it brought under my notice before. Hooker in his great 

 work on the Flora of Tasmania merely observes : — " Ergot 

 occurs on grasses in Tasmania, but it is uncertain to what 

 species of Cordyceps it owes its origin." It would be well perhaps, 

 if the attention of farmers was drawn to the subject, with a 

 view to stamping out the obnoxious fungus, wherever discovered. 

 At the same, time it must be stated, that the human subject 

 (so far as Tasmania is concerned) is not likely to be affected 

 by it, inasmuch as I never heard of its attacking wheat, and 

 what rye is grown here is not made into bread. The quantity 

 of the latter cereal too is infinitesimal, for I find by returns 

 issued in to-day's Hobart Town Gazette, that out of 68,882 

 acres devoted to the cultivation of the cereal grasses, Q*? only 

 are occupied by rye, against 38,977 acres of wheat. 



