ERGOT OF RYE. 47 



surface and interior of the ovary of the flowers of Rye as deli- 

 cate filaments. After a certain time the fungus begins to form 

 a dense mass of thick, hard, dark purple hyphse, which gradu- 

 ally destroy and take the place of the cells of the ovary until 

 finally there is scarcely anything left of the latter. This hard 

 mass, known as the sclerotium stage, constitutes the official 

 Ergot of Rye. This is a resting stage, the grain lying dormant 

 until spring, when, if placed in warm, damp soil, there arises a 

 number of stalked bodies with globular heads in which spores 

 are produced. If these spores be carried by the wind to the 

 flowers of Rye they develop and produce new grains in the man- 

 ner just described. 



Wrap a few large grains in moistened filter paper and keep 

 in a corked bottle for several hours. By this time they will 



Fig. 32. Ergot of Rye, Transverse Section (Vogl). 



have changed from a brittle to a flexible state. Place half of a 

 grain between the two halves of a piece of elder pith, clamp in 

 a microtome and cut very thin transverse sections through the 

 pith and place them in water. Mount in water on a slide and 

 examine with low and high power. The margin of the section 

 consists of smaller cells with brown contents. Within this 

 border the cells are larger and lighter in color, rounded or oval, 

 having thick cell-walls and oily contents. In chloral hydrate 

 solution the cells become clearer and the oil collects in larger 

 globules. In longitudinal section the appearance is nearly the 

 same as in the transverse. 



