122 CLASSIFICATION OF FISSION-FUNGI. 



where it does not become too cumbersome (in titles, etc.), 

 Bacterium pyocyaneum (Fliigge) Lehmannand Neumann. 

 While we desire that all names which express the sys- 

 tematic position of the variety of bacterium shall conform 

 to the general rules of nomenclature, still we believe that 

 names currently used in bacteriologic literature, as gono- 

 coccus, pneumococcus, staphylococcus, tubercle bacillus, 

 diphtheria bacillus, can be still used, but as so-called ordi- 

 nary names. Thus also the strictest botanist, if not speak- 

 ing in a strictly systematic sense, often speaks of the oak 

 instead of quercus, and strawberry instead of fragaria. We 

 must, however, strictly avoid smuggling into the literature 

 as names of genera such names as gonococcus, etc. 



III. The Formation of the Families and Genera of 

 Fission-fungi. 



The families of the fission-fungi are given fairly uni- 

 formly by the more recent investigators. Here a better 

 division does not seem possible at present ; on the con- 

 trary, regarding the genera, the comprehension is most 

 variable. The simplest and most natural division is that 

 of Flu'gge (retained by Kruse in Flu'gge, third edition), 

 which so properly includes the genera micrococcus (strep- 

 tococcus), sarcina, bacillus, and spirillum, but without 

 rejecting energetically such genera as staphylococcus, or 

 separating the- causes of diphtheria and tuberculosis. A 

 more copious selection of genera is made by Hu'ppe, still 

 more by Migula, and the most extensive by A. Fischer. 

 After mature deliberation we have followed Flu'gge most 

 closely as to the coccaceae and bacteriacese, on the other 

 hand, the works of Loffler and Migula as to the spirillacese. 



I. Family Coccaceae Zopf, emend. Migula. Spherical 

 Bacteria. 



Cells, when free, are perfectly globular; 1 division in one, 

 two, or three directions of space, in which each spherical 

 cell divides into halves, quarters, or eighths of a sphere, 



1 Unfortunately this applies, only imperfectly to the Strept. lan- 

 ceolatus and Micrococcus gonorrhoea;. 



