184 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [OCTOBER 
mine whether the organisms were on the flax stalk itself. There 
was no difficulty in the majority of attempts to demonstrate its 
presence. In a large sense the change brought about in the flax 
stalk is a natural one, which is continually going on in nature. It 
is an attempt on the part of nature to bring about the transforma- 
tion of organic compounds, and to keep the elements moving 
through their cycles. In retting it is the desire to carry this to the 
point when the binding materials in the fiber are dissolved, thus 
releasing the bast fibers, and to check it just before the cellulose 
of the fibers is attacked. It is reasonable to expect that this could 
be done more quickly in a rettery, where favorable conditions are 
maintained and where the flora of microorganisms may easily be 
established. 
The quality of the water seems to have great influence on the 
quality of fiber. During a few experiments in the beginning of 
this work tap water containing about 1 p.p.m. of iron was used. 
This yielded a fiber which was dark and discolored in appearance. 
The use of pure distilled water corrected this and yielded a silken 
glossy fiber nearly white in color. This supports the experience 
in water retting that a better fiber is secured where a softer water 
is available, and confirms the statements of workers that the 
quality of fiber produced in the Courtrai region in Belgium, where 
flax is retted in the waters of the river Lys, is superior to that retted 
elsewhere. 
One of the earlier investigators stated that the presence of 
aerobic bacteria tended to produce more favorable conditions in 
which the anaerobic could act. To determine whether there was 
foundation for this, several experiments were carried out with 
mixtures of the anaerobe isolated in this investigation and certain 
common aerobes. Bacillus subtilis and Bacterium coli were used, 
but it could not be seen that they were of any value. Neither did 
they seem to lengthen or shorten the time required for completion 
of the retting process. Their presence seemed to have little effect. 
Under natural conditions they might favor the retting in that they 
would help to remove the products formed from the pectic binding 
materials. In favor of this assumption is the fact that nature does 
most of her work with mixed cultures, and many significant changes 
are brought about by symbioses. 
