39Ö 



With mnoli trouble T obtained pure cultures of these bacteria on 

 agarplates containing 0.()57„ toO.lVo manganolactate, whereon a|)pear 

 extremely small, capsnlated colonies, which, after being O'ushcd, 

 prove to consist of very delicate, quickly moving rodlets, whilst the 

 brown wall of the capsula again gives the usual manganireactions. 



Agar alone proved to be the best food for these bacteria. The 

 said rate of manganolactate could be assimilated, but on media, 

 richer in organic food no development was observed. If, however, 

 organic substances are (piite absent the bacteria cannot oxidise the 

 manganolactate. Although to mj opinion, they are closely related 

 to the nitrate ferment, they are not able to convert nitrites into 

 nitrates, nor can they oxidise ammonium salts to nitrites. 



By their motility they are distinguished from the genus Siderocapsa ^) 

 described by Moltsch. 



Tiie mould species which oxidise manganocarbonate to mangani- 

 oxides, and which can likewise be easily grown on filterpaper 

 plates from garden soil, grow, like the manganese bacteria, also very 

 well on agarplates containing nothing but manganocarbonate and 

 some mineral salts. On pure agar, without manganocarbonate, they 

 also develop, but less quickly, so that the carbonate evidently serves 

 as food, and not only as a catalyser. 



On plates of broth or malt extraction they likewise grow very 

 well, but more slowly than ordinary moulds, and they quite lose 

 thereupon their characteristic properties. 



They can, however, also be cultivated on various other media 

 where they produce much mycelium and sometimes fructify, but only 

 oxidise the added manganocarbonate in the presence of a very slight 

 concentration of the dissolved organic nutrient substajices. 



These moulds belong to very different groups of the Fungi, 

 but all seem to be real inhabitants of the soil. So I have found 

 species of the genera Botrytls, Sporocybe, Trichocladium, and in 

 particular of Mycogone, which I knew already as common moulds 

 of fertile garden soil. As might be expected, new forms also appeared, 

 among which a new species of Mycogone with tetrahedrally an-anged 

 brown spores, common in the garden of the Laboratory for 

 Microbiology. 



Somewhat more minutely I examined a Papulospora, which I 

 will call P. rnanganica, and a Sporocybe to which, for its common 

 occurrence on the filterpaper, the name of S. cliartoikoon is given. 



1) Die Eisenbakteiien, S 10, Jena 1910. 



