S99 



Oiii' Papulospora is very much like P. ."sepedonioides Preuss, ^) biif 

 diliers in some respects tVoin the deseiiplioii <>iveii of it by SAf;(;AKDO.'") 

 Tlie very fine mycelium remains in the substrate and })roduces only 

 extremely short hjphae bearing small spore-heads, which do not grow 

 out of the surface of the medium and under the microscope easilj' 

 divide into the oblong spores. When these spores ai-e cultivated in 

 dilute broth they form a fine, branched, multi-cellular mycelium, 

 which produces isolated spores on shorter or longer hyphae, and 

 this is quite in accordance with the (lescri[)tion in the litei-ature of 

 the genus Monosporium. 



When sown on agarmanganocarbonate plates, at 25 to 30° C. 

 the spores produce, after few days already a very delicate, strongly 

 branched mycelium, soon followed by brown-colouring of the sur- 

 roundings. Shortly after sferites appear in the brown field, first brown, 

 but later jetblack. If cultivating on agar with about 7io 7o niangano- 

 lactiite, the sferites come later and are at first colourless, but finally 

 they also grow black. Besides as sferites, the manganicompound 

 is also deposited as a brownish black precipitate at the mycelial 

 threads. The fact that the sferites may be colourless, proves that 

 they must contain something else than manganioxides only, and 

 cautious dissolving in hydrochloric acid of the black substance always 

 leaves a spherical substrate wherein the manganese is precipitated. 



Hence, the sferites remind very strongly of the calcosferites of 

 shells and egg-shells, described by Harting ') in 1872, and also of 

 the sferites of calcium-carbonate, artificially precipitated in gelatin 

 or albumin, all consisting of an organic substance, in which calcium- 

 carbonate or calciumfosfate, or both, are deposited. Harting thinks 

 that this substance, in case the sferites form in gelatin, chemicall}' 

 differs from the gelatin itself and calls it "calcoglobuline". Evidently 

 a similar conception may be applied to the manganese sferites of 

 Papulospora found in agar. The formation of sferites in the agar 

 can continue for months successively, so that evidently the mould 

 does not produce noxious substances. It is then observed that the 



1) Engler's Pflanzenfamilien, Bd. 1, Abt. 1 S. 4^8, Fig. 221 D. 



~) Saccardo, Sylloge fungorum, Bd. 4, Pag. 59, 1885. 



^} Recherches de morphologie synthétiquc (Acad. Royale des sciences Néeiland.), 

 Amsterdam, v. d. Post 1872. Very beautiful sferites of ironfosfate may be obtained 

 by allowing ferroamoniumsulfale to diffuse against sodiumfosfate. They likewise 

 consist of a spherical substrate in which the ferrisalt is deposited. The late Prof. 

 VAN 't Hoff, who long ago examined these sferites for me, came to the conclusion 

 that the ironfosfate occurs in it as uilramicroscopic crystal needles or trichites, 

 belonging to the monoclinic system, radiating from the centre and arranged in 

 layers. 



