286 



YEAST PLANT. 



PART II. 



other low organizations of having their species widely 

 distributed. The Penicillium glaucum is found in all 

 countries, especially in the vicinity of man ; it inevitably 

 appears in all saccharine substances, and, according to 

 M. Fries, it is met with alike in the alps of Lapland and 

 in the oasis of Jupiter Ammon in the Lybian desert, 

 an example which has no parallel in the geographical 



Fig. 34. Mncedines : a, Aspergillns' glancns ; 6, Aspergillus dubius ; c, Penicillium 

 armeniacmn ; d, Sepedonium mycophilum ; e, Helminthosporium nodosum ; /, Hel- 

 minthosporium Hoffmauni, spore ; g, Zygodesmus f uscus. 



distribution of the higher plants. 1 Ferment, that is to 

 say, the ye.ast plant, is a peculiar condition of certain 

 fungi, including the present species, and is capable of 

 unlimited propagation. 



The real spore-bearing filaments of the Penicillium 

 glaucuin are only developed in air, for when the spores 

 of that fungus are kept submerged in a liquid favourable 

 for their growth, as in a saccharine solution, or the juice 

 of the grape, they form an aquatic mycelium on the 

 filaments of which cells are produced, and carbonic acid 

 gas is given out. These cells increase by budding or 

 division into chains of ferment, easily separated into 

 single cells. The Penicillium glaucum is thus developed 



1 ' On the Geographical Distribution of Fungi,' by M. E. P. Fries, of 

 Upsala, Sweden. 



