A KEY FOR THE 



DETERMINATION OF THE 



GENERIC POSITION OF ORGANISMS 



LISTED IN THE MANUAL 



By 

 V. B. D. SKERMAN 



Department of Bacteriology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia 



INTRODUCTION 



The following key has been designed to enable the user to determine whether 

 any isolated organism bears any resemblance to an organism described in the 

 Manual. Although the key terminates in most cases at a genus, it has been 

 formulated on individual species descriptions. Every effort has been made to 

 see that if the description of any species within the Manual is applied to the 

 key, the description will lead to the genus into which the species has been placed 

 in the Manual. Keys provided by the various contributors should be followed 

 in deciding which species within the genus most closely agrees with the iso- 

 late. It is quite possible, owing to the limited description of many species, that 

 the new isolate will be described more extensively and may fit into more than 

 one species. It is unlikely, but not impossible, that it may fit into more than one 

 genus. 



No attempt has been made to fit the key to SLXiy system of classification. While 

 it may undoubtedly act as a guide to the proper classification of an undescribed 

 organism, it is designed solely for the purpose of identification of described 

 species. The user must judge for himself whether an isolate is identical with a 

 described species and, if not, determine its taxonomic position. 



Characters were chosen solely for their suitability for purposes of differentia- 

 tion and for the ease with which they could be determined. The sequence in 

 which they have been employed was determined in part by common usage, in 

 part by necessity through lack of other information and in part by design to 

 encourage comparison of apparently closely related organisms and to enforce 

 the use of some tests quite commonly ignored. 



Where variation in any character has been well established, due allowance 



987 



