3 i2 MORPHOLOGY OF THE ASPERGILLACE.E. 



which is snow-white, though sometimes red arid in old cultures 

 reddish brown when grown in closed culture vessels attains a 

 considerable height above the substratum, and also throws up a 

 large number of conidiophores under, these conditions (see Fig. 168). 

 No perithecia or sclerotia have yet been discovered. This quick- 

 growing species, which can be easily cultivated on the usual 

 mycological substrata, flourishes particularly well in the incubator 

 (above 30 C.). Nothing is known about the enzyme, which 

 plays an active part in the decomposition of the Soja bean. Like 

 the preceding species, this fungus does not belong to the European 

 flora, though both will grow well here. 



Aspergillus glaucus, Link {Eurotium Aspergillus glaucus, A. de 

 Bary), is the ordinary green mould, which grows everywhere, espe- 

 cially on dried plants, old black bread (pumpernickel), skins, jam, 

 old leather articles, herring pickle and other materials. This species 

 has long been known, and is met with in the literature under 

 various names : Eurotium herbariorum, Link ; Aspergillus herbari- 

 orum, Eurotium Aspergillus glaucus, de Bary ; Eurotium glaucum 

 (E. repens also seems to be the same fungus). A. DE BARY (IX.) 

 in 1859 identified the ascospores(VIIL) of the so-called Eurotium 

 herbariorum with the conidiophore form of Aspergillus glaucus, 

 Link, and showed the two to be one and the same fungus. The 

 young conidial herbage is pale green to verdigris-coloured, but 

 darkens quickly to a dirty greyish green or greyish brown, the 

 mycelium also changing colour by the deposition of pigment 

 granules, and becoming pale yellow, which turns a dirty rust- 

 brow*n. Consequently, old vegetations are often entirely dis- 

 coloured and ugly, new sowings being requisite for the identifica- 

 tion of the fungus. Hence culture experiments are necessary, 

 the characteristics of old growths being unreliable. Many of the 

 different earlier Aspergillus species, established on the basis of 

 such material, are probably nothing more than old vegetations 

 of Aspergillus glaucus, and should be struck off the list. Some 

 herbages exhibit conidia exclusively, whilst others produce only 

 numerous golden yellow perithecia (for example, on cranberry 

 jam). The conidiophore shown in Fig. 169 (1-3 mm. high) is 

 readily distinguishable from other species ; the globule, sterig- 

 mata and conidia present characteristic features. The globule, 

 which is not sharply demarcated from the stalk, is spherical to 

 knob-like, measuring about 60 /JL across, and thickly covered all 

 over with very short, simple sterigmata (up to 14 ^ by 7 /j), 

 dividing into unusually large, prickly, globular or slightly elongated 

 conidia (7-30 /* and more in diameter). These latter are remark- 

 ably large in proportion to the sterigmata (about half as broad as 

 these are long), which are plump, their length being only about 

 double the width, and not slender and pointed as in many other 

 species. A. glaucus has larger conidia than any other well-known 

 species, and none of the others produces perithecia with such 



