THE CAT-TAIL GRASS FUNGUS. 423 



Kansas and other parts of the West , but on investigation it was 

 found that the sloughing of the hoofs and other symptoms were 

 the result of ergotism, due to the foul hay on which the cattle 

 had been fed. Similar cases have occurred in other parts of the 

 country, and in Europe the use of flour made from ergotized 

 grain has occasionally given rise to epidemics of a similar nature 

 among men. 



However it may be as regards abortion, ergot does not usually 

 occur abundantly enough in closely grazed pastures to cause this 

 trouble. It has been suggested that it may be prevented from 

 occurring to a dangerous extent in hay by cutting grass as soon 

 as it comes to bloom, and curing it before the ergot has ma- 

 tured. 



Yellowish-white, irregularly rounded bodies, with a checked 

 surface, occurring in the flowers of Paspalum laeve are Spermoe- 

 dia paspali (Fr.), the sclerotium of an entirely different fungus. 



6. The cat-tail grass fungus, (Epichlbe-typMna, P.) Form- 

 ing a white or yellow coating around the upper leaf-sheaths of 



This pretty fungus is found on rather young plants 

 through the entire open season. The velvety ring^ 

 which it forms about the sheath consists at first of a 

 loose mycelium, rooted in the tissues of the grass, 

 which bears an abundance of conidia, or summer- 

 spores, by which other plants are infected. As the- 

 season goes on this thickens into a yellow or waxy 

 mass, while its surface becomes uneven by the eleva- 

 tion of minute points, each containing, when ripe, a 



FIG. 167. " cluster of asci, or spore-sacs, filled with spores. 



In Europe, meadow grasses, and especially Timothy, are some- 



