460 Mr. E.J. Quekett on the Ergot of Rye, 



carp, which has been lifted up to this point by the seed in the interior putting 

 on a state of development incompatible with the usual growth of that part. 

 It has now become shrivelled from no longer containing the seed, and presents 

 to the view a mass of broken-down porous tissue, so much so, that no regular 

 structure can be made out of this as out of other parts of the diseased grain, 

 though Leveill^ mentions there are four or five parts radiating from the centre, 

 but these appear nothing but those caused by its shriveling. 



The proportion this appendage bears to the ergot is subject to much varia- 

 tion, as in the Elymus most frequently is found nothing beyond a tuft of hairs 

 precisely such as exist on the healthy grain; but occasionally there is some 

 remaining part of the pericarp, which is variable in size. In the rye the ap- 

 pendage is generally of about the same size, viz. one sixth or one eighth the 

 length of the ergot, and appears to consist mostly of shriveled pericarp, on 

 the apex of which is occasionally a sunken depression and a few rigid hairs 

 surmounting it : when the pericarp is not lifted up by the seed within, the 

 appendage is smaller, and occasionally some fragments of what appear peri- 

 carpial covering can be detected on various parts of the body of the ergot. 



Thus it appears that this appendage is formed by the pericarp not growing 

 so fast as the seed in its interior, thereby becoming torn asunder ; still main- 

 taining some adhesion, it becomes lifted up to the apex of the ergot by the 

 great elongation of the seed, not always being central, often on one side, and 

 its base strained over the apex of the ergotized grain, and not partaking of the 

 nature of a fungus, as Leveille imagined. 



The number of ergots in any one spike of a grass is subject to much varia- 

 tion ; in Elymus sahulosus there occur a great many, but in the smaller grasses 

 only one or two, and in the rye the number seldom exceeds five or six. The 

 appendage that each possesses in its perfect state is scarcely ever to be found 

 existing on those specimens which are sold in the shops, being generally 

 rubbed off in the collection of the specimens. 



On pursuing the examination on the sporidia that exist on the exterior of 

 the ergot, they were found to be of a lengthened oval figure, having their 

 sides occasionally a little contracted about midway, of the forms represented 

 at Tab. XXXIII. B. fig. 3. ; there are, however, some variations in shape, some 

 being nearly round, and others being longer than those in the above figures. 



