THE ERGOT OF RYE, ETC. 
129 
the grain, which they find the most suitable matrix for their 
development, or they are brought into contact with the young 
grain by some means (probably by the fluid) from without. 
In either case, when they come into contact with the grain, 
they lose no time in the work of reproduction, emitting their 
filaments through the tissue of the grain, and covering its body 
with multitudes of arachnoid filaments bearing sporidia, and 
apparently destroying its coats, as the matured ergot posseses 
no envelope. 
Their presence communicates disease most frequently to the 
entire grain; sometimes, however, I have thought that the em- 
bryo only has been diseased, a part of the albumen remaining, 
along with the hairy tuft, on the apex of the ergot. This dis- 
eased action does not, I imagine, entirely deprive the grain of 
the power of growth, for it lives after the effects of the para- 
site have ceased: but it vitiates all its constituents, for neither 
starch nor gluten now exist, but instead, abundance of oil, 
which I suspect is produced by the grain, as none is seen from 
the microscopic plants whilst germinating in the way already 
described. As the ergot increases in size, it is made up partly 
of the diseased structure of the grain, and the fungic matter 
which has grown within it, which is like that observed when 
the parasitic plant grows unconnected with the grass, not be- 
ing sporidia, but condensed cells such as compose the filaments, 
as at b, fig. 17. 
To state my opinion, derived from experiments and exami- 
nations, which have been made and repeated again and again , 
in order to obviate every source of error arising from the man- 
ner in which they have been conducted, I would say, then, 
that I consider the body known as ergot to be a mass com- 
posed of the constituents of the diseased grain, mixed with 
fungic matter, occupying the place of the healthy ovary, of 
which can be observed some retained relics in its triangular 
shape, and the furrow on one of its sides, both conditions being 
those of the perfect grain also. 
Since it has been, I trust, demonstrated that the ergot is no 
longer to be considered an independent fungus, it has become 
vol. v. — NO. n. 17 
