CHAPTER XVI 



PURE CULTURES OF ALGAE 



In a lecture held before the "Provinciaal Utrechtsch Genootschap 

 voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen" on June 24th, 1889 i), Beijerinck 

 reported the successful outcome of his experiments leading to the 

 first pure cultures of green algae ever obtained2). In 1890 a larger 

 treatise on the subject appeared under the title "Culturversuche mit 

 Zoochlorellen, Lichenengonidien und anderen niederen Algen" 3). It 

 will be apparent that in making pure cultures of algae, Beijerinck 

 tried out the isolation methods which he had learned in his bacteriolo- 

 gical work. He was quickly successful — at least for a number of algae 

 — when he used gelatine media to which no organic nutriments had 

 been added ; the cultures were of course exposed to light. He observed, 

 however, that, once isolated, several of the algae grew better when 

 cultivated afterwards on culture media, or in solutions, which did 

 contain organic nutrition ; peptone, especially, appeared to act favour- 

 ably as a nitrogen source. Several of these algae grew excellently even 

 on malt-extract-gelatine without exposure to light. 



Once Beijerinck was in possession of these pure cultures, he 

 used them for experiments of a nature similar to those in which he 

 had succeeded so well with bacteria. He applied the indigo-white 

 method and also his technique of using luminous bacteria, to de- 

 monstrate oxygen formation in red light, and he proved that the algae 

 themselves and yeast-cells, added to the culture, may grow when the 

 suspension is put in red light, even when the solutions do not contain 

 organic substances. 



Experiments were then made, also, to isolate the Zoochlorellae of 

 Hydra viridis, and those of a green variety of Stentor polymorphus. 

 Beijerinck had become convinced by the study of the green sym- 

 bionts of these organisms, that they must be considered identical with 

 one of the green algae which he had isolated (he gave it the name 



1) Over gelatineculturen van eencellige groenwieren, Aanteekeningen van het 

 verhandelde in de Sectievergaderingen van het Provinciaal Utrechtsch Genootschap 

 K. en W. 35-52, 1889 (Verzamelde Geschriften 2, 227-236). 



2) H. KuFFERATH in his monograph "La culture des algues" (Paris 1930) mentions 

 that, at the same time as Beijerinck Miquel succeeded in obtaining pure cultures 

 of algae (diatoms). Without detracting anything from the great merits of the well- 

 known French bacteriologist, it seems that Beijerinck has the right of priority, since 

 Miquel's paper was published a vear later (1890). 



3) Botanische Zeitung 48, 725-739, 741-754, 757-768, 781-785, 1890 {Verzamelde 

 Geschriften 2, 293-320). 



