494 M. L. R. Tulasne on the Ergot of Rye. 



an apparently independent life. It lives on the female Argo- 

 nauts, fecundates them by a true copulation, as I have observed 

 in the Hectocotylus Tremoctopodis, and by this circumstance, by 

 its movements, by a kind of circulation, and by the long dura- 

 tion of its life after its detachment, it resembles a true male 

 animal. 



However, it cannot be regarded as an independent animal, 

 having no organs of digestion, and not being the place in which 

 the semen is formed, but only an organ for its transport. 



On the other hand, it is evident that the Hectocotylus is not 

 an ordinary spermatophore, since these, according to the inves- 

 tigations of Milne-Edwards, have not the least trace of organi- 

 zation, while the Hectocotyli possess muscles, nerves, ganglia 

 (the Hectocotylus possesses a chain of ganglia in the axis of its 

 body in the middle of the muscular tube), vessels, chromato- 

 phores, &c. 



The Hectocotylus of the Argonaut is then the arm of a male 

 Argonaut metamorphosed for the purpose of carrying the semen, 

 and therewith impregnating the female; an arm endowed with 

 so high a degree of independence that it truly deserves Cuvier's 

 phrase, " un ver vraiment extraordinaire." 



I shall shortly publish in MM. Siebold and Kolliker's ' Zeit- 

 schrift fur Zoologie' a more elaborate memoir upon this subject. 



XLII. — On the Ergot of Rye, Sclerotium Clavus, D.C. 

 By M. L. R. Tulasne*. 



Since botanists have been agreed in regarding the ergot of 

 Grasses as a vegetable production (Sclerotii spec, D.C. ; Sper- 

 mcedia, Fries), almost all have distinguished in it two things : one 

 a fungoid, homogeneous and solid mass (Sclerotium, D.C; Noso- 

 carya, Fee), and the other a filamentous and sporiferous portion, 

 especially abundant towards the summit of the Ergot (Sphacelia, 

 Lev., Fee ; Ergotatia, Quekett) . It is imagined that this latter 

 chiefly constitutes the parasitic fungus, and the body of the Ergot 

 is regarded as a monstrosity of the ovule (Leveillef), a patholo- 

 gical production (Phoebus, Mougeot, &c), or an hypertrophied 

 seed (Fee), no further inquiry having been made as to its real 



* From the Comptes Rendus, December 8, 1851. Communicated by 

 Arthur Henfrey, F.L.S. 



f Vide Ann. des Sc. Nat. 2nd Ser. xx. 218. Although M. Leveille mis- 

 understood the nature of the Ergot of the Grasses, his opinion that the 

 Sclerotia are " fungi arrested in their development, or rather a condensed 

 mycelium, the nature of which is to provide for the preservation of the spe- 

 cies " {he. cit. 216), acquires a further degree of certainty from the facts 

 mentioned in this note. 



