22 MICROBES, FERMENTS, AND MOULDS. 
In the spring, owing to the heat and moisture, the 
hyphe of the scleroti 
Fig. 11.—One of the heads or 
organs of fructification in 
ergot, still more maghified. 
a, peritheces, 
s swell and, send forth numerous 
branches, bearing at their ex- 
tremity a sort of rounded head, 
in which the asci or peritheces 
are developed (Figs. 10, 11, 12); 
the endogenous spores issuing 
from these asci germinate on 
the rye-blossom, and produce 
there a fresh sphacelium, then 
a second ergot, thus always 
passing through the same cycle 
of alternation of generations. 
Most of the Graminacee and several Cyperacew are 
capable of producing ergots resembling those of rye, 
Fig. 12.—Portion of preceding figure under a very high magnifying power, showing 
at b the asci, and at c the 
spores issuing from the asci or peritheces. 
and possessing the same medical properties. The sug- 
gestion has been made that instead of the ergot of rye 
