Ethel M. Doidge 73 



Reaction of medium. The bacterium is not specially sensitive to 

 the reaction of the medium in which it is grown. The optimum reaction 

 lies between +10 and + 20 Fuller, +15 taken as approximately the 

 optimum for cultural purposes. 



The following table will serve to indicate the extreme reactions at 

 which growth will take place and the amount of vaiious substances 

 necessary to inhibit growth. 



Toleration of sodium chloride. Cultivations were made in nutrient 

 bouillon to which varying amounts of NaCl had been added. Growth 

 was unrestrained in tubes containing up to 4 % NaCl, meagre in those 

 with 5 to 6 % and inhibited in those with 7 %. 



Desiccation. The organism is not particularly sensitive to desicca- 

 tion ; cultures are readily obtained from cover slips on which the 

 organism has been dried for six weeks; more prolonged tests have yet 

 to be made. 



Insolation. The bacterium is fairly sensitive to the action of direct 

 sunlight. Five minutes exposure is sufficient to destroy a large per- 

 centage of the rods and ten minutes to kill them all. The exposures 

 were made on a block of ice, to the mid-day summer sun, the plates 

 being further protected by being covered with glass basins containing 

 about 2 cm. of a 4 % solution of potash alum. 



The growth of the organism is not restrained in the diffuse light of 

 the laboratory. 



Nomenclature. 



The organism appears to be one which has not previously been 

 described. I therefore propose for it the name Bacterium nectarophihim 

 n.sp., its chief characters are as follows: 



Bacterium, necturophilum. n.sp., parasitic in pear blossoms, causing 

 blackening of the receptacle and ovary, and less frequently of the sepals 

 and flower stalks; a short rod -5 — 3 /a x -45 — -T/x, majority are 1 — 1-5/x. 

 X -6- — -GD/a; rods single or in pairs, short chains are fairly frequent, 



