SCH1Z0MYCETES AND SACCHAROMYCETES 299 



the generic name of Torula prevailed, in all notices of yeast 

 plants, for very many years after it was demonstrated and 

 known that Torula had nothing whatever to do with them. 



But faith, fanatic faith, once wedded fast 

 To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last. 



The cells, in budding, give rise to similar cells, attached to 

 each other in chains, resembling the conidia in Oidium, or, 

 less closely, those of some species of Torula, in which latter 

 genus the cells are dark coloured, almost black. The similarity 

 of form led to the confusion of names ; whilst in point of fact 

 the yeast Fungi have no affinity with Torula. 



The technical, or scientific, description of the yeast Fungi 

 is " Unicellular plants, which multiply themselves by budding, 

 and reproduce themselves by endogenous spores. They live 

 singly or united in bud colonies, chiefly in saccharine solutions, 

 where they excite alcoholic fermentation." For the purpose 

 of illustration, the yeast which causes fermentation in beer 

 may be taken as a type of these organisms. Primarily they 

 consist of a single cell, which is round or elliptic, but 

 occasionally becomes elongated, and parted off by transverse 

 divisions. In order to multiply themselves, the simple cells 

 produce an outgrowth from the periphery, which gradually 

 enlarges, absorbs a portion of the 



contents of the parent cell — &, £? ft <-Q(-^\ & 

 which it ultimately resembles in 'rF ^iV^ P\ 



form and size — then the con- J^b ^ cQ rv_ v _ \) 

 nection between them is cut off fir or {j~^~^ 

 by a transverse wall or partition, * * 2 ° * eo ° 



and two Cells OCCUpy the place Fig. 138.— Saccharomyces ettipsoideus. 



of the former one. Each of Chatto and windus. 



these cells is capable, in like manner, of budding and producing 

 daughter cells, and so the course goes on (Fig. 138). 



Increase by budding, or gemmation, goes on most rapidly 

 under the influence of moisture, mostly immersed in a 

 saccharine solution, and in this position the sugar of the fluid 

 is decomposed, resulting in alcoholic fermentation. Spores 

 may be developed on a moist substratum, by the contents of a 

 cell dividing itself into two or four portions, each of which 



