VINEGAR. 



[ 679 ] 



VINEGAR PLANT. 



season. The application of sulphur appears 

 to arrest the growth. 



BiBL. Berkeley, Gardener's Chron. 1847, 

 no. 48, &c. ; Journ. Hort. Soc. vi. p. 284, 

 ix. p. 61 ; Mohl, Botan. Zeit. x. p. 9, xi. 

 p. 585, xii. p. 137 (translated, Journ. Hort. 

 Soc. vii. p. 132, ix. pp. 1 & 64), and Bibl. 

 therein ; Montague, Bull. Soc. Centr. Agric. 

 ser. 2. v.; Journ. Hort. Soc. ix. p. 112; 

 Amici, Atti G-iorgof. di Firenze, xxx. (Trans. 

 Journ. Hort. Soc. viii. p. 231 ; Savi, ibid. 

 241); Tulasne, Bot. Zeit. xi. p. 257 (1853); 

 Comptes rendus, xxxvii. (Oct. 1853); Visiani 

 and Zanardini, Atti Instit. Veneto, 4^c. ser. 2. 

 iv.; Ehrenberg, Bot. Zeit. xi. p. 16; Cesati, 

 Klotzsch. Herb. Viv. Myc. Cent. xvii. no. 

 1669 Z> ; Bot. Zeit. x. p. 301 (1852) ; Leveille, 

 Revue horticole (June 1851). 



VINEGAR, Eels in. SeeANGuiLLULA. 



VINEGAR PLANT.— Under this name 

 is known a remarkable vegetable production 

 formed in fluids rich in sugar, when under- 

 going fermentation at ordinary temperatures 

 and conversion into vinegar. As ordinarily 

 met with, it forms a tough gelatinous mass 

 floating on the surface of the liquid, its 

 shape (supei-ficially) defined by that of the 

 vessel in which it is contained, extending 

 itself so as to occupy the whole surface even 

 in very large pans, — its depth or thickness 

 depending on its age and the amount of nu- 

 triment contained in the liquid. The gela- 

 tinous substance decreases in density from 

 above downwards, the lower part being very 

 lax and flocculent, the inferior surface being 

 in a state of continuous development. The 

 general mass, however, disjjlays remarkable 

 tenacity, which, together with its lubricity, 

 renders it diflicult to tear ; but if the low^er 

 surface is examined, it is found possible to 

 strip off layer after layer, each a few^ lines 

 thick, to an extent depending on conditions 

 of growth, the lower, less dense portion 

 being thus distinctly stratified. 



When portions are placed beneath the mi- 

 croscope, very varied forms of structure are 

 discovered in the interior. The general mass 

 of jelly appears structureless, as if formed by 

 some exudation, or solution of the organized 

 portion ; but the mode of origin of this jelly 

 is not yet ascertained. Imbedded in the 

 jelly are cellular structures, polymorphous 

 indeed, but exhibiting transitions which ren- 

 der it impossible to regard them as of distinct 

 origin. In the middle portion often occur 

 innumerable isolated masses of short row s 

 of cells, resembling the cells of Yeast when 

 coherent, except that they are generally el- 



liptical ; some of them have short cylindi'ical 

 joints ; others short cylindrical portions ari- 

 sing from long tubular filaments, and termi- 

 nating in elliptical cells, so as to resemble 

 exactly Oidium. The diameter of all these 

 structures is most variable, from 1-4000 to 

 1-8000". In the upper part the elongated, 

 branched filaments more abound, the length 

 of the internodes and the diameter of the 

 tubes still varying extremely. At the lower, 

 laxer surface, the cellular structures are ac- 

 companied by less of the tough gelatinous 

 matrix. The lamination of the lower grow- 

 ing surface is very curious, but perhaps may 

 be accounted for by supposing that the infe- 

 rior growing surface of the mass, which is 

 certainly the mycelium of a fungus, periodi- 

 cally produces a crop of conidia, which be- 

 come detached and fall into the body of the 

 liquid on which the mass floats; there quickly 

 germinating they form a new entangled mass 

 of filaments and chaplets of cells, which then 

 acquires its gelatinous consistence, and, 

 buoyed up by the liquid, applies itself against 

 the low^er surface of the parent-mass, with 

 which it adheres more or less on account of 

 the gelatinous condition. In the upper part 

 of old and thick masses, the layers become 

 inseparable, probably in some measure from 

 the pressure of the floating force from be- 

 low, together with the condensation arising 

 from the evaporation of the liquid of the 

 jelly at the upper surface. 



When a vinegar plant is left upon the so- 

 lution after the saccharine matter is ex- 

 hausted, we find it always display after a 

 certain time patches of the ordinaiy fructifi- 

 cation ofPENiciLLi- 

 UM^Z«MCMm(fig.810), 

 as stated by Turpin 

 and others, forming 

 green, blue and yel- 

 low " mould " upon 

 the surface, also im- 

 bedded in the upper 

 strata, in which also 

 heaps of the spores 

 occur ; the vinegar 

 sometimes ultimate- 

 ly suff^ers more or less 

 decomposition, so 

 that the common 

 " mother " of vine- 

 gar, which by its 

 growth destroys the 

 acidity, appears to 

 be another condition 

 of this same organ- 



Penicillium. 



Head of a fertile filament 

 bearing strings of spores. 



Magnified 250 diaras. 



