20 



crimson. Two rice grains wliicli projected up above the general sur- 

 face, and which were invested by the fungus, were wholly deep purple 

 verging to crimson, while the hypha; projecting from them were color- 

 less (white). 



In 2, nearly as much growth as in 1, but much less color, the hyphie 

 being white above and purplish where they rested on the colored sub- 

 stratum, but not crimson. 



In 3, fungus pine white, but only a trace of growth; i. e., not one 

 two-hundredth as much as in 1 or 2. 



At the end of 13 days the condition was as follows: In 1 the surface 

 was nearly covered with beautiful masses of crimson mycelium; the 

 upper half of the rice was also invaded by the fungus and was mottled — 

 white, purple, and crimson ; 2, too much water in this Hask, and fungus 

 growth conspicuous only on the surface; no crimson stain, but some pur- 

 ple hypha^; nearly all of the fungus was snow white; in 3, fungus snow 

 white ; there were now five small tufts of fungus on the surface of the rice, 

 but the latter was too alkaline for a rapid growth. In 21 days the condi- 

 tion of l!^o. 3 had much improved, the fungus being visible on a hundred 

 or more of the surface grains of rice as a thin white hyphal layer. On 

 the thirty-seventh day the fungus had increased noticeably in growth, 

 and all of it was pure white, and the rice grains were also free from 

 color. That the alkali did not simply mask the color was shown by the 

 fact that when some of the fungus-infested rice grains from this flask 

 were put into dilute hydrochloric acid there was no change of color. In 

 flask 1 the fungus had not reached the bottom of the rice at the end ot 

 21 days, but there were traces of it nearly to the bottom. The upper 

 half of the culture (a large mass, it will be remembered) now varied from 

 rose color to crimson, both the rice and the fungus, and was very showy. 

 After about 40 days, during which the bright color increased in some 

 parts and faded to purple in others, the top part of flask 1 was extracted 

 with hot alcohol. The alcohol became brown-red and a bluish-violet 

 residue remained. This brown-red alcohol became opalescent on the 

 addition of water, but the precipitated color passed readily through a 

 filter paper. The alcoholic extract faded slowly on exposure to light. 



On another occasion some of the bright-red fungus was extracted 

 with alcohol. In quantity the alcoholic extract was dragon's-blood 

 red, and the residuum was blue-purple. The red alcoholic extract was 

 rendered colorless by a few drops of strong caustic-potash liquor or 

 caustic-soda liquor, but was not destroyed by liquor-ammonia fort., even 

 when used in large quantities. The addition of a saturated solution 

 of sodium carbonate did not destroy the color. It would seem, there- 

 fore, that two colors may be present— a blue and a red — the latter solu- 

 ble in alcohol and easily destroyed by light and by caustic potassa and 

 soda, the former insoluble in alcohol, more resistant to light and 

 unaffected by alkalies. 



The red fungus from a rice culture was tested with various reagents 



