374 Linnaan Society. 



pollen. Early one morning during the last autumn Mr. Smith's 

 attention was attracted by observing several large drops of a 

 brown-coloured fluid suspended from a spike of a species of Elymus, 

 in which were several full-grown ergots, and others in a younger 

 state. The fluid was viscid and had a saccharine flavour. On sub- 

 jecting a portion of it to the microscope, it was found to be full of 

 innumerable minute, oblong, transparent bodies, varying from the 

 3000th to the 7000th of an inch, and resembling the sporules of 

 fungi, and slightly bent, having a somewhat indistinct spot at each 

 end. On applying a drop of Avater to a full-grown ergot, multitudes of 

 these bodies became disengaged from its surface, and issued from the 

 cracks or longitudinal fissures which generally characterize the fully 

 developed ergot. These bodies imparted to the water a milky ap- 

 pearance. He observed the same bodies on ergots of all ages and 

 sizes, and on opening the unexpanded flowers of ergot-bearing spikes, 

 they were met with in abundance on the diflferent organs, especially on 

 the anthers ; for on cutting an anther and applying water, they were 

 seen to float out along with the pollen. They were also observed 

 on the ovarium, and in little clusters on the hairs and feathery stig- 

 mata. These bodies are found to accompany the ergot through 

 all its stages, and are present even before the fecundation of the ova- 

 rium, at least before the discharge of the pollen, and consequently 

 before there is any appearance of an ergot, they therefore cannot be 

 the sporules, but must be the cellules of the minute fungus itself. 

 On examining an ergot, the surface before being moistened presents 

 under the microscope the appearance of a thin whitish-pruinose 

 crust, which, on the application of moisture, speedily separates into 

 myriads of the minute transparent cellules before mentioned. On 

 viewing the ergot in the dry state under the microscope, the pruinose 

 appearance of the crust will be found to arise from these bodies being 

 united together longitudinally, forming slightly elevated spiculae, but 

 crowded underneath and forming a kind of crust. These cellules so 

 united present the appearance of slender-jointed filaments, either 

 simple or branched, in which state they occur likewise on the 

 anthers. Mr. Smith regards these cellules as the articulations of a 

 minute filamentous fungus which is developed in the early stage of 

 the flower, and propagating itself by the separation of the joints 

 and impregnating the soil or the perfect seeds of the grass, which on 

 germination and subsequent development carry up some of the re- 

 productive matter of the fungus, which again developes itself in the 

 flower, in the manner that Mr. Francis Bauer has shown to take 

 place in the propagation of the smut and grain-M'orms in wheat. 



