EUROTIUM. 129 



decoction is to be used very dilute, and is to be boiled 

 immediately before starting the culture, so as to 



kill any foreign spores which may be already present : 

 with the same object, the glass slide, cover-slip, and 

 needles are all to be heated in a spirit-lamp, and the 

 porous pad for the moist chamber is to be well boiled 

 in water. 



Having made these preparations, place a single drop 

 of the dilute, sterilised decoction on the cover-slip : then 

 with a needle, moistened with the sterilised fluid, re- 

 move from as pure a tuft of Eurotium as can be found 

 a small number of conidia, and place them in the 

 single drop on the cover-slip : examine under a low 

 power to see that the number of conidia is small, then 

 quickly invert the cover-slip and place it over the round 

 hole punched in the porous pad. Keep the preparation 

 thus made under a bell-glass, and observe it from time 

 to time under the microscope : if the culture be success- 

 ful, the successive stages of germination and of further 

 development of the Mould may be watched in detail. 



IV. The perithecia, and the archicarps (female 

 organs) which give rise to them, are to be sought for on 

 a mycelium which has already produced mature conidia : 

 the ripe perithecia (Eurotium fruits) may be readily 

 recognised in old cultures on dry bread, as minute 

 yellowish spherical bodies, easily distinguished by 

 the naked eye. 



A. Remove a small piece of mycelium which has 

 already borne mature conidiophores, and is thus likely 

 to bear young archicarps : moisten it with alcohol, 

 and then wash off in a watch-glass in water as many of 

 the conidia as possible : tease it out with needles, 



K 



