82 
WHEAT. 
to be found in old paste may be taken as an example of the general 
appearance of this division of “ thread-worms.” 
A good many kinds—some seventeen or so—have been recorded by 
Dr. Bastian as having been found either definitely doing injury to 
various kinds of corn and grass, or being found at the roots, or 
amongst the slieathing-leaves thereof. 
It is difficult to convey any exact likeness of the wormlet at this 
size on wood, but the figure gives the general shape, and the upper 
end shows moderately the spear or proboscis in the mouth-end, though 
not its tliree-lobed base ; also the rounded muscular swelling just 
below, which is one of the characteristics of this species ; and the 
coarse fat granules in the intestine. The colour is yellowish white, 
and the largest wormlets are from a seventh to even a quarter of an 
inch in length. 
The method of attack, as quoted by Dr. Bastian from M. Davaine’s 
experiments, is, that when the infested galls are sown, these galls 
become softened, and the wormlets within, thus being able to escape, 
make their way to the young shooting plants, “ and then insert them¬ 
selves between the sheaths of its leaves, gradually working their way 
round till they come to the innermost of these, where they remain for 
a variable time, without increasing much in size, till the rudiment of 
the future ear begins to form.” Whilst this is still so young that the 
future portions of the flower are not yet distinct, and are still of soft 
cellular’ tissue, the wormlets introduce themselves within these portions, 
and the gall-like growth of “Cockles,” or “False Ergot,” is the 
result. 
The “ young worms soon become perfectly developed males and 
females. These vary in number from two to twelve in each gall, and, 
after producing an enormous number of ova [eggs] containing fully- 
formed young (which speedily liberate themselves, though they after¬ 
wards undergo little change), themselves die and wither at the time 
when the gall begins to assume its characteristic purplish-black or 
brown appearance.” 
The above is partially quoted, partially abridged, from Dr. Bastian’s 
account of his own observations, and those of Davaine.* 
In regard to the power of the wormlets of withstanding most of 
the application which can be commonly brought to bear on them, it is 
mentioned by Tasclienberg “ that a temperature to which the corn 
cannot be heated without losing its growing power does not kill the 
worm, nor the most severe cold reach them in the egg,” and they may 
be dried till apparently dead, and restored by warmth in connection 
with dampness time after time without receiving injury. They will 
* “Monograph on the Anguilluliche,” by H. Charlton Bastian.—‘Trans. Linn. 
Soc.,’ vol. xxv., pp. 87, 88. 
