ML'COU KOUXII. 87 



white velvety covering, are next dried, either by exiK)Sure to 

 the sun, or (in rainy weatiier^ liy Lr,^i,t|o liie heat, and are thi-n 

 packed into bags for Siile to the distiUers. In Indiji and China 

 these balls are employed in the following manner : about 1 .•, jtarts 

 by weight of the finely crushed or ground mass are s|irinkle<I 

 over 100 parts of husked rice, tliat has previously been softened 

 by boiling in water and cooled down sutiiciently by spreading 

 it out on mats. The two aie intimately mixed together, place<l 

 in earthenware pots holding al)out 4.^ gall>. (20 litres), so as to 

 half fill the sjime, and are left covered up. The starcli gnulually 

 saccharifies, and the mass con.se<|uently becomes partly li<piid. At 

 the en<l of about tluee days the [>ots are filled up with rivei- water, 

 and the sweet licjuid is left to undergo alccdiolic fermentiition, 

 which .sets in very .soon. This .stjige htsts two days, and the 

 mash is then distilled in leaden retorts heated by direct fire. 

 Each 100 kilos, of rice furnish about 60 litres of spirits, cou- 

 Uiining about ^h jier cent, of alcohol. 



The flora of Chinese yeast consi.sts of bacteria, which, how- 

 ever, are of no uioimMit ; then yeast cells, which must be regarded 

 as the exciting agents of the alcoholic feiinentation ; and certain 

 Mucors, which effect the .sacchariGcation of the stiirch. Of the 

 la.st-named organisms, which alone concern us here, C'almette 

 i.solated a species, which, in honoiu- of his teacher and colleague, 

 E. Koux, he named Aun/lonii/res lioiwii. He did not, lu»wever, 

 ascertain anything definite respecting the morphology of this 

 fungus and its position in the botanical .system ; but it was 

 afterwanls recognised as a Mucor Ijy Eijkman, and its name 

 clianged to Mwor avi ijloiii i/rex lioiurii. The first thoroughgoing 

 investigations regarding the progress of development of this 

 organism were pulilished l>y (.". Weilmek (XI.) in 1900, who at 

 the .sjime time propo.-^e<l to shorten the name to Mwnr Umtxii. 

 According to this workt-r the .spomngiophore — which is about 

 I m.m. long and 7 to 14 /t bro.id- is generally branched, and in 

 many cases is decidedly .sympodial (see Fig. iiS). According 

 to the conditions of nutrition the sponingia are either upright 

 or declinate, globular, gla.ss-clear ami yellowish when rii)e, and 

 attjiin up to 50 /I in diameter. When they fall into decav a 

 consideiable remainder of the smooth, colourh'ss niendnane is left 

 as a collar on the sporangiophore. The cohunella (Fig. 119) 

 is glol)ular, slightly ilattened, smooth, colourless, .and measures 

 23 to 32 /I by 20 to 2S /t. The spores are colourless, glabrous, and 

 genendly elongated (5 t<i 2.8 /i), rarely globular, and completely 

 fill the sporangium. It is worthy of mention that the failure 

 to form sjiorangia noticeable in many Phvcomvcetes is also 

 observed here as a fretpient <)ccurrence, the sj)oningium. instead 

 of ripening, either cea.sing t<i develop more than half-way, or 

 else germinating as a tiilte in place of forming spores. This 

 phenonuMion does not appear in cultures on rice, but most u.suallv 



