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



which must be regarded as the term of the whole, is an elegant 

 Sphaeria, and very probably the same which has received from 

 M. Fries the name of Cordyliceps* purpurea. This plant was 

 first described at the commencement of the present century by 

 Schumacher, who stated that he found it upon the seeds of dis- 

 eased Cereals. It has been observed anew recently on the Scle- 

 rotium Clavus produced on Bromus sylvaticus (M. Roussel), on 

 Arundo Calamagrostis, and on an undetermined Grass (MM. Petit 

 and Bamberger, quoted by M. Desmazieres) ; finally, according 

 to M. Merat, who thought that it was to be regarded as a new 

 species of Onygena (Onygena ccespitosa seu affinis, Mer. MS. in 

 suopte herb.), M. Dumeril has met with it on the Ergot of Rye. 

 Nevertheless it does not appear that the origin of this Cordy- 

 liceps has opened the eyes of botanists to the nature of the 

 Ergot of the Grasses ; and although this mode of origin had 

 hitherto been regarded as merely accidental, I was desirous of 

 ascertaining by direct experiment that the final product of the 

 Ergot of Rye was really such as the preceding observations in- 

 dicated. With this intent therefore I this summer planted a 

 certain number which began to vegetate nearly two months 

 ago, and I now possess some which bear several examples of 

 Cordyliceps, which I have seen produced, and traced day by day 

 in their development. 



If, after these explanations, other proofs of the true nature of 

 the Ergot of Rye should be judged necessary, I would cite as a 

 term of comparison the Cordyliceps typhina, Fries, the stroma of 

 which proceeds from a filamentous mycelium, altogether analo- 

 gous to that of Sclerotium Clavus, D.C., and which in like man- 

 ner becomes covered with innumerable acrogenous conidia before 

 giving birth to aggregated perithecia, differing in no respect in 

 their intimate structure from those of Cordyliceps purpurea, Fries. 



The conclusion from all this is, that the Ergot of the Grasses, 

 if it be subject, like other plants, to the influence of cosmical cir- 

 cumstances, is not, as M. Fries imagined, incapable of propa- 

 gating by seeds, since it possesses at least two kinds : viz. 1 . the 

 conidia, which precede and accompany the development of the 

 Sclerotium, and which I have several times seen germinate and 

 become elongated into filaments, like the conidia of the Erysiphes 

 (fertilizing organs and spores, Leveillef), or like the spores pro- 



* M. Fries usually writes, doubtless by abbreviation, Cordyceps ; but 

 botb are hybrid words, for which it will be perhaps convenient to substi- 

 tute Claviceps, which preserves their signification. 



t Vide Ann. des Sc. Nat. 3rd Ser. xv. 119, 120 & 1/8. M. Levcille 

 seems to have mistaken the value which I have attributed to the reproduc- 

 tive cellules which arise in strings from the mycelium of the Erysiphes ; for 

 I have hitherto regarded them only as conidia (see my note on the Repro- 

 ductive Apparatus of Fungi cited above). 





