INJURIOUS AND OTHER FUNGI. 37 



to their simpler forms, and the space from the time when a spore 

 germinates to the time when spores are again formed may be reduced 

 to weeks, and even days, instead of being months and years as in 

 plants of a higher and more complex organization. The grains of 

 corn that, to the naked eye, appear perfect!}' free from the smut, 

 may have their tissue interwoven with its m^xelium threads ; and 

 Avhen the grains thus affected are planted, the fungits is planted 

 with it, and as the corn plant grows so does the parasite, until the 

 presence of the latter becomes evident in its black, dusty fruitage. 

 This is one of the methods of propagation which is of great impor- 

 tance to the existence of the smut plant. As with the rust, there 

 seems to be no available method of staying its ravages when moist 

 and warm weather comes at just that season of the year best fitted 

 for its rapid development. Still, much could be clone to reduce the 

 munber of its reproductive bodies, by cutting off and burning the 

 affected portions before the smut plant has ripened its spores. 

 Concerted action is required in a movement like this ; and when 

 farmers, as a whole, see that it is for their interest to go through 

 their fields of growing corn, and destroy this pest in its early stages 

 of growth, we can assure them that from that day on they will have 

 more and better corn for their labor. 



In all cereals to some extent, but especially in the rye, may fre- 

 quently be found a fungus which has long been known under the 

 name of Ergot (Claviceps purpurea). Like the corn smut, this 

 plant attacks the young grain and causes it to assume a very much 

 enlarged form, protruding far be3'ond the husks and resembling a 

 cock's spur, whence its common name " spurred rye." The whole 

 enlarged mass is made up of hard mycelium, on the surface of 

 which the conidial spores are borne. The fungus may exist in this 

 indurated form for a long time without further development, but 

 when these ergot grains fall upon moist earth, sprouts soon proceed 

 from them which form club-shaped heads at their extremities, in 

 which spores of the second form are produced in little sacs. These 

 different forms were for a long time considered distinct species ; but 

 the hard state, that in which ergot exists as sold in the shops and 

 used in medicine, is onl}- a form which man}' fungi have the power 

 of taking on when the}' prepare for a season of repose. Ergot is 

 one of the most poisonous of the smaller fungi. In several provinces 

 of France and Germany, epidemics of nervous derangement, result- 

 ing in gangrene and frequent loss of limbs and even of life, have 



