Abortion in Cows. 
471 
Fig. 2. — Claviceps 
purpurea. 
if it is allowed to attain its full growth it is always larger than 
the individual seed would have been whose place it usurps. 
Most of our grasses are liable to be infested by it, but in this 
district I have found a much greater proportion of it on rye- 
grass than on any other ; cocksfoot, timothy, the fescue grasses 
and Yorkshire fogg (Holcus lanatus) coming next in order. It 
attains its full growth in about three months, 
and soon afterwards it becomes detached 
from its host and falls to the ground, where, 
unless it is picked up, it remains until the 
warmth and moisture of early summer causes 
it to undergo changes which result in the 
development of myriads of very minute 
spores. These when fully formed are shot 
up into the air by the bursting of their 
covering, and if they alight on, or are carried 
by the wind or insects to the pistil or young 
seeds of flowering grasses, they take up their 
habitation thereon and develop into the 
visible ergot. 
While the ergot is growing it is capable 
of affecting grasses that are later in flowering 
than those on which the ergot is situated in pale purple head globose, 
o stem curved, sporidia at- 
two ways. At an early period of its arrowth tenuated. 
, . ^ . , c • ^ • 2. Sclerotium. — Hom- 
a glistening drop oi a syrupy consistence is shaped or ciub- shaped, 
formed on the spike, which attracts flies. rhTn'broken.''''""'^*'" 
It contains mycelium, which may be carried 
by these insects to other flowering grasses, and thus causes new 
growth. 
Conidia are also formed on the external surface of the 
growing ergot which may be carried by the same agency, or 
by the wind, with a like result.* An interesting article on 
ergot, which appeared in the ' Journal of the British Dairy 
Farmers' Association,' by Prof. Fream, may be advantageously 
read. For a minute life-history of this and other fungi, that 
splendid little book entitled ' Diseases of Field and Garden 
Crops,' by Worthington G. Smith, may be consulted ; it should 
be in the library of every agriculturist. The 1874 'Journal' 
of this Society contains an excellent description of ergot and 
the mode of its growth, by Professor Carruthers, from which 
the appended illustrations are taken. 
Ergotised grasses are not frequently found growing universally 
1. AscopJinres. — Fleshy, 
* The first ergot I found this year was on August 19th ; I placed it in a drop 
of -water and rolled it over a few times, then with a camel-hair hrush moistened 
each protruding stigma of two blades of rye-grass, whicli were growing on a 
rockery. Ergots are now visible on nearly every spikelet (October Gth). 
