New York Agricdltukal Experiment Station. 159 



YI. A FUNGUS IN REFRIGERATOKS. 



Last July our attention was called to a refrigerator which was 

 not working properly. The provision compartment was flooded 

 with water. Upon investigation it was found that the drain 

 pipe was plugged throughout its entire length with a fungous 

 growth. The conical cap over the lower end of the drain pipe 

 was likewise filled with it, as was also the tube of a large funnel 

 set to catch the water and conduct it through the floor. 



Being, at that time, interested in the tile drain fungus dis- 

 cussed in the preceding article, we at once became interested in 

 this somewhat analogous case and decided to make a study of it. 



The fungous growth was gray or dirty gray in color; but on 

 account of admixture with dirt from the ice some of it was quite 

 dark. It had a slimy, slippery feel and clung together in sheets 

 or rope-like masses which were often several inches in extent. 

 Microscopic examination showed the slimy, gray masses to be 

 composed of small, uncolored fungous hyphae loosely woven 

 together. The hyphae were branched and had a diameter of 3 

 ■j-Q 5/i. They contained numerous roundish granules of various 

 sizes, and appeared to be non-septate. The most striking char- 

 acter of the fungus was the presence of curved spore-like bodies 

 resembling the spores of Fusarium except that they were non- 

 septate. They measured 28 to 43 /^ in length by 4^//. in width. 

 They were abundant and most of them were free, but occasion- 

 ally they were found attached to the hyphae both laterally and 

 terminally (Plate VI, Figs. 4-8). We have been unable to iden- 

 tify the fungus. In the fresh condition we were unable to find 

 any traces of septatlon, either in the hyphae or spores; but after 

 the fungus had been preserved four months in a 4 per ct. solu- 

 ion of formalin, some of the hyphae had the appearance of being 

 septate (Plate VI, Fig. 8). However, the small size of the hyphas 

 makes it diflScult to determine this point with certainty; there- 

 fore, the identity of the fungus is very uncertain. If the hyphte 

 are really non-septate (and we incline to this opinion) the fungus 

 belongs to the Phycomyceteae, a group which contains many 



