.] 



NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



21 



a closed cell, where they have been hermetically sealed for two 

 years and three months. In spite of their long confinement 

 they are yet alive, but their movements are not as quick as when 

 first mounted. 



When first mounted, and in fresh specimens generally, what 

 are apparently transition forms, between the bacteria and the 

 jointed mycelium, can be found. These led your essayist to 

 believe that the latter were spores, from which the former 

 developed. Prof. Farlow, the Mycologist of Harvard University, 

 thought this must be a mistake, when told of it. That these 



Fig. 1.— From Dilute Phosphoric Acid. 



transition forms are there is certain, but that the smaller masses 

 are veritable bacteria may be doubtful. Polymorphism is a 

 well-known fact among Thallophytes, but to trace direct rela- 

 tionship between gutter-bacteria and higher fungi would indeed 

 be startling. When some of the threads were transplanted to 

 moist bread under a bell glass, a crop of Pencillium glatuum 

 appeared. Other solutions, having growths differing markedly 

 in appearance from those of dilute Phosphoric Acid, when 

 transplanted in a similar manner, gave a variety of Pencilliums, 



