450 Mr. Smith's Observations on the Cause of Ergot, 



as it has the sraell of sugar and water, it occurred to me that the object of 

 the fly's visits was to feed on this liquid. I collected part of this fluid in 

 a phial, and on examining it in the microscope I found it entirely composed 

 of myriads of generally uniform oblong transparent bodies, like sporidia of 

 a fungus, slightly bent, with one indistinct spot near each end ; these spo- 

 ridia-like bodies freely dispersed on diluting the viscid fluid with water, but 

 retained their forms : I at the moment considered them to be the sporidia of 

 the ergot, and I was led the more to believe so, as on applying a drop of water 

 to a full-grown ergot, multitudes of them became disengaged from its surface, 

 and from the cracks or longitudinal fissures, which generally characterize the 

 ergot, the water so impregnated having a milky appearance. 



I also found the same bodies on the glumes and other parts, with which 

 the liquid, having run, had come in contact, and which, when hardened 

 by evaporation, gave the parts a dark appearance. 



On further examination I found the same bodies on ergots of all sizes, even 

 on the youngest, and on opening yet unexpanded florets towards the apex of 

 ergot-bearing spikes, I frequently detected them on the surface of different 

 parts of the fructification, especially on the anthers and ovarium, and in little 

 clusters on the hairs and feathery stigmas. Many florets, however, were de- 

 stitute of them. 



Now as these bodies have been found to accompany the ergot through all 

 its stages, and are present before the impregnation of the ovarium, at least be- 

 fore the discharge of the pollen, and, consequently, before there is any appear- 

 ance of an ergot being about to be formed, they cannot be its seeds, but no 

 doubt are in some way the primary cause of it ; and it now remains to deter- 

 mine what these sporidia-like bodies are. On examining an ergot of Elymus 

 (or of any other grass) before it has been moistened, its surface is seen to have 

 a chalky or dirty white colour), which viewed in the microscope is seen like a 

 thin crust having a pruinose snowy appearance, and readily separating on the 

 least application of moisture into myriads of the sporidia-like bodies : on view- 

 ing this crust in a dry state, the pruinose appearance is seen to be caused by 

 these bodies being joined together lengthways into slightly elevated spicula, 

 and thus forming a crust. 



On extending this examination to the anthers, where they appear to me first 



