188 Brand in the Cereals. [Nov., 



IX. The Ergot. Mutter korn,Kormz apfen, Roggen mutter, Mar- 

 tinis /corn, Halinspor7i, Todlenkopf, Gerslen mutter, ^c. Hy- 

 mcnula Clavus [Corda). French — Ergot, [Tessier, Malad. des 

 grains, p. 2 1 ). English — Cockspur, Black grain of corn, Ergot. 



Plate III. Fig. 21-30. 



This disease so noxious to our cultivated grasses ever since the 

 time of Tessier, has been investigated, in various forms, as to its 

 natural history by Queckett, Bauer, Fee and Leveillc, and the il- 

 lustrations of it as well as the hypotheses of its origin have induced 

 critical study respecting this so simple fungus. More particularly 

 has the transformation of the seed in the fungus been subjected to 

 examination; but without any previous decided knowledge of 

 natural history, and the microscopic analyses, have been very neg- 

 ligently performed by naturalists. On the other hand however, it 

 has been carefully inquired, whether or not this or that part of the 

 seed was contained, and could be discovered in the ergot. Simi- 

 lar has been the case with the investigation of the parasite which 

 causes this deformity, it exhibits numerous names of naturalists 

 because they have made no perfect analysis of the fungus. The 

 reader who may be interested in the contradictory opinions, often 

 expressed, may find the same scattered through the following 

 works: 



Meyen ueber das Mutter korn, in Miiller's archiv. for Anatomic 

 und Physiologic, 1838, § 357. 



Spiering de Lecale cornuto. Diss, inaug. Berol. 1839. Le- 

 veille Memoires sur I'ergot. In the Mem. de la Societ. Lieneenne 

 de Paris, v. p. 365. 



Phoebus Teutsche, Giftgewachse, 1838, p. 97. 



Meyen, Pflanzenpathologie, 1841, p. 195. 



Observations on the cause of Ergot, by Mr. James Smith. 



A. L. S. Linnean Society Trans. XVIII. 3 p. 449. 



Observations on the Ergot of Rye and some other Grasses, by 

 Edwin J. Queckett, Esq., F. L. S. (Linn. Tr. 1 c. p. 475.) 



For the sake of brevity I shall here omit all the opinions and 

 views, and only relate what I have myself observed, and can also 

 be responsible for, little as it may indeed be. 



If we closely examine the seed affected by the ergot, we find 

 it covered with a bluish-gray growth, resembling down, which is 

 easily wiped off, whereby the dark-violet color of the layer be- 

 neath is made to appear. In many seeds we see the pistil still 

 remaining and thickened towards the top (Fig. 21), but in all 

 these are yet found traces of the little shield (schildchen), (Fig. 

 22), at the base of the fungus. Viewed in the section, the fungus 

 forms a Avhite, compact homogenous mass, which at the first ap- 



