3i6 



Bulletin 240. 



roots on the surface of the agar. In the nutrient sokition and distilled 

 water the root system was developed altogether underneath the surface. 



Pure cultures- in sterilized mushroom agar were also made with cab- 

 bage, the seeds being sterilized and the strengths and kinds of the medium 

 being the same as with the pure cultures of the radish. The growth of 

 the cabbage was somewhat slower than the radish. The fact that cab- 

 bages do well in swampy and partially fermented ground when brought 

 into cultivation suggested that this plant might perhaps be an especially 

 favorable one to experiment wdth in using these peculiar substances as 

 nutrients. So far as the present experiments go the cabbage has not 

 grown quite so luxuriantly as the radish, but the health fulness of the 



Fig. 126. — Radish seedlings growing in sterilized material in bottles. From left to 

 right the material is as follows: Firs., distilled water; second, in unfermentcd ma- 

 terial willi fine solid particles included; third, in unfermenicd infusion; fourth, in 

 fermented m-aterial; fifth, in Schimper's normal nutrient solution. 



plant is about the same. While in the case of the radish plants the 

 nutrient value of the substances as indicated by growth .showed that the 

 previously fermented mushroom stood next to Schimper's normal nutrient 

 solution, with the other substances in order as follows: infusion of dried 

 mushroom un fermented, infusion of dried mushroom with fine solid par- 

 ticles included and unfermented, distilled water ; in the cabbage so far 

 as size of the plants is concerned the plants in previously fermented 

 substance stood next those grown in distilled water, while tho?e in the 

 unfermented mushroom whether infusion alone or with the fine solid 

 particles included stood next those grown in Schimper's solution. If 



