May 31, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



875 



and tliat the amount of amyl alcohol formed 

 was equivalent to the quantity of leucine 

 which disappeared in the course of the reac- 

 tion. It follows, therefore, that the am- 

 monia must be absorbed by the yeast as 

 rapidly as it is produced and be converted into 

 insoluble albimiinoid material. 



Evidently the formation of fusel oil is de- 

 pendent on the assimilation of nitrogen by 

 the yeast and it was found, by further ex- 

 periments, that the addition of asparagine, 

 H,NCOCH(]SrH,)CH,CO^, or of certain am- 

 monium salts such as the carbonate or sul- 

 phate, all of which liberate ammonia far 

 more readily than the amino-acids, such 

 as the leucines, almost completely prevents 

 the formation of fusel oil. The results 

 were the same irrespective of the kind of 

 yeast employed and of the presence or ab- 

 sence of leucine from the mixture. Solutions 

 of ordinary molasses behaved like those of pure 

 sugar. The formation of fusel oil under in- 

 dustrial conditions appears, therefore, to be 

 due essentially to the presence of amino acids 

 in the mash, and not to those which the yeast 

 contains. It is also obvious that the removal 

 of these acids is not necessary for the pre- 

 vention of the formation of fusel oil. 



The same chemist has also carried out a 

 number of experiments on the production of 

 certain higher and more complicated alcohols 

 from amino acids, in the presence of ferment- 

 ing sugar. He finds that the action is a gen- 

 eral one and that it appears to resemble cer- 

 tain activities in plants. Thus, from phenyl- 

 alanine, 0„H,CH,OH(NH,)CO,H, he obtained 

 phenylethyl alcohol, C,H,OH,CH,OH, which is 

 the chief constituent of the odoriferous ma- 

 terial of the rose. 



J. Bishop Tingle 



Johns Hopkins Univeesitt 



BOTANICAL NOTES 

 HOW TO STUDY THE FUNGI 



George Massee, the well-known mycologist 

 of Kew, has brought out a useful ' Text-book 

 of Fungi ' (Duckworth and Company, Lon- 

 don), which is intended to serve as an intro- 

 duction to those new lines of research included 



in the morphology, biology and physiology of 

 the fungi, ' and also to indicate where fuller 

 information may be obtained.' The reader 

 wiU observe that the book is not, like some of 

 its English predecessors, a book of informa- 

 tion, only, but it is intended to foster in- 

 vestigation and research, in accordance with 

 present-day ideas as to the proper function of 

 a text-book for advanced students. For it 

 must be remembered that this is no elementary 

 presentation of the subject for children in the . 

 secondary schools, or others who have not had 

 a good preliminary training in the ' general 

 botany ' courses in the college or university. 

 It is, on the contrary, a book for the college or 

 university student who has already acquired a 

 good general notion of the fungi, and their 

 relations to other members of the vegetable 

 kingdom, and who is now ready to take up 

 their particular study. 



The book is roughly divided into three 

 parts: I., Morphology, Physiology, Biology, 

 etc. (195 pages) ; EC., Pathology (36 pages) ; 

 III., Classification (183 pages). In the first, 

 such topics as the cell, anatomy of fungi, 

 formation of spores, sexual reproduction, 

 asexual reproduction, effect of light, effect of 

 low temperature, respiration, transpiration, 

 enzymes, parasitism, symbiosis, heteroecism, 

 mycoplasm, ehemotaxis, geographical distri- 

 bution, ecology, phylogeny, etc., are taken 

 up at greater or less length, and it is safe 

 to say that any properly prepared student 

 who carefully goes over this part of the 

 book will do so with great profit, and will 

 get a very good modem understanding of 

 these plants. In the second part the student 

 finds helpful discussions of the diseases caused 

 by fungi, the spread of disease by means of 

 hybernating mycelium, legislation against dis- 

 ease-producing fungi, etc. The third part 

 opens with a discussion of the classifications 

 of the fungi, followed by a systematic ac- 

 count of the orders and families. The author 

 arranges all fungi under six orders, namely; 

 Phycomycetes, Hemiascomycetes, Ascomycetes, 

 Hemibasidiomycetes, Basidiomycetes, Deuter- 

 omyeetes. The text is illustrated with 141 

 figures, which add much to the usefulness of 

 the book. 



