92 USE OF :\IUCOPtE.E IN THE SPIKIT INDUSTRY. 



else a few fragments of fresh rice straw are kneaded in with the 

 cakes. The dried Ragi cakes — which are sometimes called Java 

 yeast — form an article of commerce in Java. 



According to Eijkman (II.), Tapej, or, as it is also called, 

 Tsao, is prepared by the aid of Ragi, by boiling husked Mochigome 

 rice (Ori/za glutinosa, known as " Ketan " in Java) in water till 

 soft, spreading it out in a thin layer till cool, sprinkling it 

 over with powdered Ragi (with which it is well mixed), and 

 packing the whole into a cylindrical vessel (with a perforated 

 bottom), which is then covered up with a mat and left alone for 

 two days. At the end of this time the rice will be found changed 

 into a semi-fluid, sour-sweet, coherent mass, which is now called 

 Tapej. As already mentioned, it is used to excite fermentation 

 in molasses. Its application will be again referred to in the 

 next section. 



The flora of Ragi, and of Tapej as well, comprises three 

 groups of micro-organisms : first, bacteria, which need not be 

 considered here ; secondly, budding fungi, which will be dealt 

 with in a later section ; thirdly, fungi belonging to the family 

 Mucoracece. The latter alone are concerned in the saccharifi- 

 cation of the starch in Tapej, and with the liquefaction of 

 the mass. Wext and Geerligs (I.) discovered two forms of 

 these in Ragi, and bestowed on them the names Clilamijdo- 

 mucor oryzcB and Rlvzopm onj7:m (§ 237), but left open the 

 question as to the probability of both foi-ms belonging to one 

 and the same species. One of them is in many respects 

 similar to the Aiuylomyces {Muror) Iioii.ru already described, 

 and, like this latter, also has its habitat on rice straw. Never- 

 theless, certain differences have been observed between them, 

 especially with regard to the absence of the faculty (possessed 

 by the Mueor aforesaid) of producing alcohol from sugar when 

 oxygen is excluded. In Ragi this species is found exclusively 

 in the form of gemmae, which are rich in glycogen, strongly 

 refractive of light, and, according to C. Wehmer (IX.), retain 

 their power of germination for more than one and a half years 

 when in the dry state. In Tapej they then germinate to a 

 mycelium, which, however, rarely (and then only sparingly) 

 succeeds in forming the (black) sporangia in that medium, 

 though it will do so abundantly in pure cultures on boiled rice, 

 &c. A certain interest attaches to the physiology of Clildinydo- 

 mucor oryziB. By the action of its diastatic enzyme it forms 

 dextrose from starch. The amount of this sugar formed, how- 

 ever, depends on the kind of starch employed, the results 

 obtained by Went and Prinsen Geerligs being : with Indian 

 meal and potato flour, 8 per cent.; arrowroot, 16 per cent.; 

 wheaten flour, 29 per cent. ; ordinary rice, 44 per cent. ; and 

 Mochigome rice, 64 per cent. As is well known, the starch 

 granules of this last-named seed consist mainly of amylodextrin, 



