65 



TFIE MICROSCOPIC HISTORY OF THE 

 VINEGAR-PLANT. 



BY J. B. DAVIF.B, ESQ. 



A FEW years age, public attention was called to a peculiar gelatinous body, 

 which, when put into syrup, had the wonderful property of changing it into 

 vinegar; and this is now called, even by those who previously could not 

 conceive of a plant without root, stem, and leaves, the "Vinegar-plant." 



The history of the plant is involved in great obscurity, some saying that 

 it came from the West Indies, while others assert that it was brought to 

 this country by the captain of a ship from South America. "N^^hatever be 

 the history of individual specimens, the history of the species is simple enough. 

 When a little stale vinegar, or, as Schleiden says, "the expressed juice of 

 currant," is left for a few days exposed in the open air, bodies are produced 

 in it, in the form of a muddy film or sediment, and these gi'adually attract 

 each other, and form a gelatin ovis-like mass. Every one is acquainted with 

 the appearance of the soft dirty-white mass which is formed in the bottoms 

 of empty wine-bottles; this is, if not identical with, at least very similar to, 

 the Vinegar-plant. In connexion with its history and habitat, I may state 

 that a friend of mine in Glasgow, who formerly dealt extensively in vinegar, 

 informed me that the plant had been familiar to him for many years, and 

 that he always observed it in vinegar which contained a large per centage 

 of saccharine matter, while pure acetic acid was free from it. Nor are these 

 developments confined to acetous and saccharine solutions; Dr. Pereira discovered 

 similar forms in many fluids, particularly in empyreumatic succinate of ammonia. 

 An interesting article on the subject was communicated by him to the 

 ^'Pharmaceutical Journal," vol. vii. The following note on "Mycoderma," 

 in ^'Lindley's Medical and Q3conomic Botany," bears out this statement: — 

 ''It is probable that the floculent matter which forms in various infusions 

 when they become 'mothery,' and which beai's this name, is only the 

 mycelium of Mxicor, Penicillium, and other Fungals of a similar nature," I 

 have no doubt then of its being a native of Britain. 



When first brouglit conspicuously before the scientific world, the idea was 

 entertained by some that it was the Trcviella nostic of Linnaeus, a plant 

 found, but rarely, on commons near London; which idea Mr. Lloyd proves, 

 in an able article in "The Phytologist," to b(} incorrect Some time after, 

 in the same journal, Mr. Bloxam writes to the following effect: — "About two 

 years ago I enquired of the Rev, M. A. Berkeley, what this really was, and 

 found that he considered it a form of PenicilUimi crmtaceum, which is 

 described in the 'English Flora.'" Dr. Lindley, in his admirable work,* before 

 quoted, describes it as a form of Penicillium glaucum, of Greville. As the 

 mass occurs it is no easy matter to determine its species, or even genus; 

 and it is likely to afford debating room for some time to come. Undoubtedly 



* rublishcd in 1849. 

 VOL. II. K 



