CHAPTER LXI. 

 SACCHAROMYCES APICULATUS. 



BY PROF. DR. H. MTJLLER-THURGAU, 



Director of the Swiss Experimental Institute for Fruit Wine 



and Horticulture, at "Wadenswill near Zurich. 



309. History, Distribution and Morphology. 



RIPE, soft fruit is often found to be infested with a budding 

 fungus, to which the name of Saccharomyces apiculatus has been 

 given on account of its tapered ends. This is the fungus 

 described by Kiitzing under the name Cryptococcus vini ; and 

 we are indebted to REESS (I), for its closer examination and for 

 the introduction of its present name into the literature. This 

 worker found it, associated with various Saccharomycetes, in 

 fermenting fruit juices and wine musts, but never succeeded in 

 inducing it to form ascospores. The reason why Reess in this 

 instance left out of consideration the characteristic on which he 

 founded the genus /Saccharomyces, namely, the production of endo- 

 spores (see p. 274, vol. ii.), and nevertheless applied the generic 

 name Saccharomyces to this species, was on account of "its 

 known morphological peculiarities and its physiological behaviour 

 as an alcoholic ferment," as also " in the expectation that its 

 power of producing ascospores will be revealed by some other 

 method of cultivation." It was not until quite recently, however, 

 that such a method was discovered. HANSEN (IX.) tried to find 

 it in vain, as did also KLOCKER (IV.) with reference to the 

 expression of an adverse opinion by BEIJERINCK (XVIII.) ; and 

 consequently the so-called Saccharomyces apiculatus had perforce 

 to be excluded from the family of the Saccharomycetes for the 

 time being. The only reason for retaining the name bestowed 

 upon it by Reess was a disinclination to rechristen a well-known 

 organism. 



ENGEL (II.) claimed to have discovered an entirely new form 



\ of fructification of this fungus, analogous to that of Protomyces 



\\ (see p. 1 08, vol. ii.), for which reason he conferred on it the new 



generic name, Carpozyma. No one else, however, not even E. C. 



HANSEN (IX.) who repeated Engel's experiment has been able 



422 



