628 



J oiiriial of A ^^ric II 1 1 lire . 



[ii Oct., 1909. 



The Fungus Film. 



The fact that flor could be allowed to grow on the surface of wine on 

 ullage, without risk of acetification, came to me as a contradiction of my 

 previous wine-making experience. How was it, for example, that the 

 presence of flor or flowers on the surface of the wine, which I had been 

 ahva\s taught to look ui)nn as a faulty condition;, fraught with grave 

 danger, was one of the leading features of sherry rearing — of fino wines 

 at least. Since my return to Australia the same question has been put to 

 me rei:)eatedl\'. How is it that the wine does not become pricked? A 

 complete answer is given bv a study of the life hi.story of the organism of 

 the ordinary flowers of wine, M vcodenna vini.* 



On my return to Montpellier after having visited Spain, I had a mosr 

 interesting conversation with Professor Bouffard, Director of the CFno- 

 logical Laboratory, at the Montpellier College, to whom I asked this very 

 question. For reply he referred me to the chapter of Pasteur's Studies on 

 'Wine which deals with acetification. 



MVCODERMA VINI AND MVCODERMA ACETI (aFTER PASTEUr). 



In the neighbouriKX}d of Arbois, in the French Jura district, it has for 

 generations been customary not to fill up certain wines, but to rel\- upon 

 the protection afforded by the layer of flowers, or M ycodcrnia vini, which 

 freely grows on their ullaged surface. Pasteur proved for the first time, 

 that so long as this organism exists in a state of purity and finds condi- 

 tions suitable for its active growtli, acetification does not take place; 

 Mycodernia viui absorbs nxvgen so eiiergcticall) that in the words of 

 Pasteur — ■ 



''This rKiuicl (wine), even freely exposed in conlait with air cannot dissolve the 

 slightest tr.ice of oxygen if it be covered with a film of Mycodernia vini." 



* The exact nature of ttie flnr orjranis 11 is not olear. Whrther none other than common MiifadcniKi 

 rhii, which it resembles exactly wlirn seen iiniler the iiiicroscolie (!=ee ill\ist lat'nii) or an allieil oriranisiii lias 

 not yet been decided. 



