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iirgots (lifTered in appearance from any I had previously seen, and 
were, I concluded, true Wheat Ergots, 
Communicating with my friend Mr. A. Stephen Wilson, of 
Aberdeen, who has made a special study of Ergotisation, I gathered 
from him, that although my specimens were most likely Wheat 
Ergots, yet they so much resembled the Ergots of some species 
of Glycera, that in the absence of absolute proof, such as finding 
them in situ, Mr. Wilson declined to say they were Wheat Ergots, 
especially as he had never seen Wheat affected with this fungoid 
disease. During the month of October last, however, I was enabled 
to send INfr. Wilson some ears of Wheat with the Ergots in situ, 
wliich of course settled the matter. 
^fy attention was directed a few weeks back to a sample of 
Wheat containing a great many “ little bits of stick,” which the 
process of dressing liad failed to eliminate. These were at once 
recognised as being Wheat Ergots, and upon inquiry it was found 
that a great number of samples offered in the Lynn Market were 
similarly affected, the curious part being, that everyone whose 
attention was directed to the Ergots recognised them as not being 
very uncommon some years in Wheat, although never so abundant 
as they are this year, but they had hitherto always been looked 
upon as being the excrement of birds, or of Mice, and Eats. 
The Ei-gotisation of grasses and cereals takes place in the spring. 
Daring the months of !May and Juno the Ergots of the previous 
year develop their perfect fungus (Claviceps purpurea), the sporidia 
of which are scattered by the combined agency of sunshine, 
moisture, and air currents, .fhese sporidia gain access to the ovule 
at, or immediately after, its fertilization ; when this takes place the 
ovule, instead of maturing into a perfect grain, becomes an Ergot. 
jS^ow, as Mr. Wilson has pointed out in his work on Ergot (p. 15 ), 
the Wheats have their florets open only for a short time, and very 
soon after fertilization close their pales. Owing to the peculiar 
sunless weather last year, the W heats were not only later in their 
time of flowering, which would approximate this process more 
nearly in point of time with that of the development of the 
Claviceps sporidia, but also, owing to the same cause, would the 
process of fertilization take longer to accomplish. The district 
wliich has this year yielded the greatest number of Wheat Ergots 
is marshland, although they are not absent from Wheat grown in 
