- 8 - 

 whicli harbors the v/hite fungus or "honey dexv secreting* fungus previously de- 

 scribed by him \inder the name Sphacelia sefi-etum L^v- 



The step tovard the establishing of the relation between the white 

 fungous growth on the rye spilcelets and the later appearance of the violet er- 

 got, was irade without L^veilld's knov/ledge one year before this. Meyeh (175) 

 published in 1841 his observations on ergot and proved that ergot developed 

 fron the fungus Sphacelia se,&etum. Meyen considered the Sphacelia as the 

 itycelium of tlae ergot sclerotia. Corda (4-6;, on tlie otiier hand, thought tliat 

 the Spliacelia -.-ra,s the product of the sclerotia. He described in detail the 

 morphology of ergot sclerotia and speaking of the outer dark covering of the 

 sclerotiui'ii he says, -'or the exterior of this layer is resting tlae spore formin.':, 

 layer of the fungus. This consists of fibrous, sinple, one-celled non-sep- 

 tated basidial cells of white color on whose ends are borne the spores, '■ 

 Fries noticed the germinating ergot sclei-otia and the foriaition. of strojrata 

 with pcrithecia, but thought it was an independent fungus and called it 

 Sphaeria purpurea . 



Duricn (260; first showed that wlaon. ascosporos from the stromata fall 

 on heads of cereal plants ergot resulted. ""lile this was a considerable step 

 toi'/ai'ds the solution of this problem, one Kore important question TensAnea to 

 be answered, i.e., what becomes of the sclerotia which we call ergot? This 

 question was solved by Tulasne in 1852 who planted a gre^t number of ergot 

 sclerotia in flov/er pots. He saw, 2.s had others before him, a fungus appear- 

 ing on these sclerotia in the form of stronsta- The value of Tulasne 's contrj- 

 bution consists in showing th£,t the purple stronata ( C lavi cep s purpurea Tul.; 

 do not 'appear accidentally on the sclerotium of ergot as had been thouglit by 

 previous workers, but a.re a, direct fruiting form of tlie same; tiiat the ergot 

 sclerotia aio merely the hibernation or resting steiges of the same fungus. 



