56 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9IO. 



Attempts have been made to produce the asci by sowing the 

 oidia in petri dishes in 5 c. c. of agar or gelatin and then after 

 this was sohdiiied adding enough gelatin to almost fill the dish. 

 In this Avay a considerable amount of buried mycelium was 

 produced in some cases but no asci. It seems that the asci 

 must require very special cultural conditions for their develop- 

 ment. The readiness with which the cells of the mycelium sep- 

 arate to form oidia is illustrated by the behavior in hanging drop 

 cultures. When the rounded, thick walled spores were sown 

 in hanging drops of prune decoction they germinated readily. 

 After 18 hours, nearly all had pushed out germ tubes, and when 

 the germ tube reached a length of about 3 times the diameter 

 of the spore a cross wall was formed. After only a few cells 

 were formed, they began to separate to form oidia. At the end 

 of 48 hours the drops were filled with the one celled rounded 

 oidia. 



It is of considerable interest to compare the cultural char- 

 acters of Endamyces Magmisii and of the Endornyces from ap- 

 ple. It has been seen that while their characters are very dif- 

 ferent each one retains its characters even when grown under 

 a wide range of conditions and does not vary to any great ex- 

 tent. For example Endornyces MagniisU forms oidia in large 

 numbers in all the culture media used either solid or liquid and 

 does not form asci readily in cultures while the Endornyces from 

 apple never forms oidia under any of the conditions which have 

 been tested and produces asci readily in most of the culture 

 media. 



Another interesting point of difference is in their growth in 

 fermentation tubes. Endornyces Magnusii does not form gas in 

 2 per cent lactose, and 2 per cent mannite broth but it does 

 form £as in considerable quantity in 2 per cent dextrose and in 

 2 per cent saccharose broth. In dextrose broth at room tem- 

 perature gas began to appear on the fifth day and increased 

 rapidly in amount until the eighth day when the gas occupied 

 about 80 per cent of the closed arm in each case. Most of the 

 gas formed was carbon dioxide. In saccharose broth the amount 

 of gas was less, being about 50 per cent of the closed arm. 



In connection with the statement of the fact that Endornyces 

 Magnusii ferments dextrose and saccharose with the formation 

 of gas, attention should be called to the conclusions of Ludwig, 

 Hansen and Brefeld in regard to fermentation by this fungus. 



