45 



niiidc only a feeble to moderate growth and had formed no yellow 

 slime in the water, the contrast being very striking. After 135 days 

 this culture on sugar beet was still fresh-looking, and the solid yellow 

 slime where the water had been was 2 cm. deep. 



The surface of this growth was always wet-shining, but sometimes 

 it was smooth and at other times shagreened. Of two cultures exam- 

 ined on the fifth day, the one grown at room temperature was smooth, 

 th(^ one kept in the thermostat was shagreened. Of two other cultures 

 examined on the twenty-second and thirtieth days, both grown at room 

 temperatures, one was smooth and the other was shagreened, i. e., 

 thickly set with smooth, roundish papilL^, which appeared gelatinous 

 to the eye but lifted out readily when touched with the loop. The 

 smooth culture was paler yellow than the other. Portions of the latter 

 did not dissolve readily in water. Under the microscope this culture 

 appeared to be all one thing. In a pale-yellow culture 30 days old 

 there were no spores, but many dense aggregates (zoogloea?) not readily 

 dissolving in water. The rods were short and slender, and no chains 

 or motile elements were visible. In the same culture, after 55 days, 

 there were colonies or zoogkp{\? in the surface slime. These had 

 roundish margins and were paler yellow than the body of the slime. 

 In a beaker of water they did not dissolv^e in one-half hour. 



At first the cultures were not sticky (8 days), but eventually they 

 became slightly stringy (30 days). 



The color of the growth was distinctly yellow from the start, in most 

 cases becoming })right yellow. In mass on white paper, on the eighth 

 day, this color was between gamboge yellow and chrome yellow (Ridg- 

 way). After 21 days another culture was gamboge yellow and was 

 several shades brighter than a corresponding culture on potato. After 

 17 davs in the thermostat the color was "dull yellow." One culture 

 remained pale yellow for 57 days. Several others grown at room tem- 

 peratures were bright yellow after 2 months, and one was noted as 

 still bright 3^ellow at the end of 135 days. 



Tubes inoculated from a culture 52 days old took readily, showing 

 that a considerable portion of the culture was living. 



An acid seems to be slowly developed in small quantities by the 

 growth of the organism on this substratum. In one tube, at the end 

 of 7 days, there was no acid reaction, the fluid being feebly alkaline 

 to neutral litmus paper. On the eighth day, in a tube from another 

 series, the slime was not alkaline and not acid, but exactly neutral. 

 After 21 days, in a tu))e from another series, the fluid was feebly 

 alkaline. On the thirtieth day, in cultures of another series, the 

 vellow surface slime was not alkaline, but neutral or slightlv acid. 

 The lluid in the hottoni of this tu))e was neutral, but the paper red- 

 dened on drying. The fluid, however, from a check tube was also 

 neutral at first, but was e(iually and plainly acid when dry. After 



