EPICHLOJi. 19] 



spores. The formation of perithecia is preceded on the same 

 stroma by that of conidia.^ 



Epichloe typhina Tul. (Britain and U.S. America). This 

 may be found on many grasses as a mouldy coating which 

 surrounds the haulms and causes withering of the parts above 

 it. The fungus not unfrequently attacks such fodder-grasses as 

 Dactylis, Poa, and Phleum praetense, causing severe loss where these 

 crops are much grown. On the white stromata conidiophores are 

 produced, and from them small, ovate, unicellular conidia are 

 abjointed. These are followed later by perithecia embedded in 

 the same stromata. The asci, of a somewhat yellowish colour, 

 are long with button-shaped apices and contain eight thread- 

 like spores. 



Ep. Warburgiana, Magn.^ is an interesting species found on arrowroot 

 i^Maranta) in the Philippines. 



Claviceps. 



The sclerotia are black horn-like bodies, and on them the 

 stromata are developed as stalked structures, with spherical 

 heads, in which the flask-shaped perithecia are embedded. The 

 asci contain eight thread-like spores. 



Claviceps purpurea (Fries^) (Britain and U.S. America). 

 This fungus becomes most apparent, when in the stage of 

 the well-known "Ergot" grains, bluish-black curved sclerotial 

 bodies in which the mycelium perennates over winter. Ergot 

 is found in the ears of our cereals, especially in rye, also in 

 other cultivated and wild Gramineae. The sclerotia fall into 

 the ground direct, or are sown out with the seed, and in 

 spring or early summer produce a large number of stromata, 

 each consisting of a violet stalklet carrying a reddish-yellow 

 head. The ovoid perithecia are completely buried in the head 

 ■of the stroma, and contain the asci, each with eight thread-like 

 ascospores. The spores, after ejaculation, germinate on flowery 

 of Gramineae, and the septate mycelium developes in the outer 



^Atkinson, G. F. {Torrey Cluh Bulletin, 1894, p. 222), proposes a revision 

 of the species of EpicMoe and other species of N. American graminocolous 

 Jlypocreaceae. (Edit.) 



^ Magnus, InterncU. Bot. Congress, 1892. 



^ Tulasne, Annal. d. sci. natur. 3 ser. XX. Kuhn, Mittheilungen d. land- 

 Miirth. Inslitwt. Halle, 1863. 



