MOULDS 



183 



MOULDS 



This group is by no means so simple as the yeasts. 

 The genuses vary in almost every vital activity. The 

 following remarks, therefore, pertain to those forms 

 having some importance in human medicine. The 

 moulds or branching fungi consists of long, interlacing, 

 hair-like threads called mycelia (sing., mycelium), 



FIG. 53 



Penicillium glaucum. Gelatin culture. Spread stained with gentian-violet. 

 500 to 1. (From Itzerott and Niemann.) 



from which come off end branches called hyphse, upon 

 which the reproducing parts usually develop. These 

 mycelia are made up either of one long continuous 

 cell with a cell wall, and an easily distinguishable, long 

 nucleus, or they may break up into shorter forms each 

 with a separate nucleus. Their length and width are 

 so variable that measurements would be misleading. 



