[Vol. 9 



348 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



times the length of the organism. Van Ermengem's stain brings 

 out the flagella, but unfortunately it does not stain the body of 

 the organism properly (pi. 27, fig, 3). PitfielcPs stain as well as 

 Shunk's (II, '20) modification of Loeffler's stain, has also shown 

 but one polar flagellum. The latter stain, in particular, after 

 the mordant has been seasoned for several weeks, forms an ex- 

 cellent stain for this organism, the disadvantage being that the 

 blue color imparted by the methylene blue is difficult to photo- 

 graph by ordinary methods. 



The organism possesses capsules, as definitely shown by using 

 I Iun toon's (II, '17) method, "nutrose" being used as the diluent 

 and Ziehl's carbol fuchsin added in addition to the stain recom- 

 mended by Huntoon. This method, in contrast to Ribbert's or 

 Welch's, is much more satisfactory in bringing out the capsule 

 on this organism. Young and old cultures of the organism on 

 nutrient agar slants and in bouillon were used, and capsules were 

 observed in every case. No zoogloea or pseudozoogloea were 

 formed, although in old cultures of beef-bouillon and particularly 

 in bouillon containing various sugars, a dense precipitate settled, 

 which on agitation rose in whorls and was broken up with diffi- 

 culty. 



The organism has not been found to produce spores. Cultures 

 at various ages and on various media were examined. Anjesky's 

 spore-staining method, recommended by Giltner ('Laboratory 



Manual/ 1921 edition) was used. It is not acid fast. A bouillon 

 culture 3 days old stained with Ziehl's carbol-fuchsin and then 

 treated with 20 per cent sulphuric acid for a moment, showed 

 no color. When counterstained with aqueous methylene blue 

 the organism appeared deep blue with no trace of red. It was 

 Gram negative. A 2 1 -hour culture treated with the Gram stain 

 was colorless and became brown when counterstained with Bis- 

 marck brown. A check test with the same Gram stain on 

 Staphylococcus alius showed this organism definitely stained. 

 Ordinary stains, like gentian violet, carbol fuchsin, methylene 

 blue, and Bismarck brown were taken up readily. No irregular 

 or involution forms have been seen. 



CULTURAL CHARACTERS IN RELATION TO ACIDITY AND ALKALINITY 



Methods. — In making up culture media the recent recommen- 

 dations of the committee (Conn, II, '20) representing the Amer- 

 ican Bacteriological Society, as far as they go, were followed, 

 with modifications as will be noted, and in addition other methods 



