CULTURAL CHARACTERS OF BACTERIA 19 



a certain picture which he was anxious to paint as accurately as 

 possible ; but, with no system of terminology at hand, he found 

 it necessary to write a whole composition. All that there is in 

 this description can be expressed briefly as follows: Gelatin 

 colonies, 24 hours, macroscopically, thin, emarginate, filamentous, 

 -approaching i cm. or more in diameter. Gelatin rapidly lique- 

 fied. Microscopically, centres dense, floccose; borders filament- 

 ous. Here the simple terms floccose and filamentous, each hav- 

 ing definite meaning, express what was embodied in several 

 sentences of descriptive matter. These illustrations might be 

 multipHed indefinitely, but it will be sufficient to append a series 

 of tables proposing certain terms which may be useful in 

 ■descriptive bacteriology. 



CHARACTERS OF BACTERIAL CULTURES 

 I. Gelatin Stab Cultures. 



A. Non-liquefying. 

 Line of puncture. 



Filiform, uniform growth, without special characters. Fig. 8, i B. 



Nodose, consisting of closely aggregated colonies. 



Beaded, consisting of loosely placed or disjointed colonies. Fig. 8, 



2B. 



Papillate, beset with papillate extensions. 



Echinate, beset with acicular extensions. Fig. 8, 3 B. 



Villous, beset with short, undivided, hair-like extensions. Fig. 8, 



5B. 

 Plumose, a delicate feathery growth. 

 Arborescent, branched or tree-like, beset with branched hair-like 



extensions. Fig. 8, 4 B. 



B. Liquefying. 



Crateriform, a saucer-shaped liquefaction of the gelatin. Fig. 9, i . 

 Saccate, shape of an elongated sack, tubular, cylindrical. Fig. 9, 3. 

 Infundibuliform, shape of a funnel, conical. Fig. 9, 4. 

 Napiform, shape of a turnip. Fig. 9, 2. 

 Fusiform, outline of a parsnip, narrow at either end, broadest 



below the surface. 

 Stratiform, liquefaction extending to the walls of the tube and 



downward horizontally. Fig. 9, 5. 



