302 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



large quantity of saccharine matter is left. Various 

 conjectures have been hazarded as to the origin of 

 the so-called vinegar-plant, some stating that it came 

 from South America or other distant regions, and 

 others that it is a spontaneous production." Lindley, 

 upon the authority of the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, con- 

 sidered it a peculiar sterile form of Penicillium 

 critstaceiim, or blue mould, which, on being deprived 

 of a superfluity of moisture, sent up fertile threads 

 and produced the fructification of " blue mould." 

 When immersed in fluid, "in place of producing the 

 usual sporiferous stalks, the mycelium increases to 

 an extraordinary extent ; its cellular threads inter- 

 lacing together in a remarkable manner, and pro- 

 ducing one expanded cellular mass, with occasionally 

 rounded bodies like spores, in its substance." This 

 is the yeast-like budding characteristic of saccharo- 

 mycetal plants. " If the plant is allowed to continue 

 growing it forms numerous plates, one above the 

 other." Thus much Professor Balfour narrated forty 

 years ago,^ to which he added the results of certain 

 experiments with moulds when immersed in syrup 

 with similar results. " Some mould that had grown 

 on an apple was put into syrup in March, and in the 

 course of two months there was a cellular flat ex- 

 panded mass formed, while the syrup was converted 

 into vinegar. Some of the original mould was seen 

 on the surface in its usual form. Some mould from 

 a pear was treated in a similar way with the same 

 result; also various moulds growing on bread, tea, 



' " On the Growth of Various Kinds of Mould in Syrup," by J. II. 

 Balfour, in Tratts, Bot. Soc, Ediiu (1S52), vol. iv. p. 143. 



