64 FUNGI. [CH. ni 



Everything being sterilised and the cell ready, take a 

 clean cover-slip, heat it between two sheets of talc over a 

 flame, and allow it to cool. Then, with forceps, place the 

 cover-slip. on any convenient support, and with a platinum 

 needle place a drop on the centre. The drop is got 

 thus : — 



Infect a tube (gelatine or fluid medium) with a drop of 

 water containing spores, and shake thoroughly. Hold a 

 platinum needle in a flame, and let it cool ; dip it into the 

 infected medium and place the drop on the cover-slip. 

 Then rapidly invert the latter, and cement it to the cell 

 with gelatine, or with oil, or parafiin. 



The drop should contain one spore, and trials have to 

 be made to insure this. In gelatine media, the student 

 can work with two to five spores if well isolated. 



All the foregoing experiments can be repeated with 

 drop-cultures. 



(84) Qermination. 



Place a culture containing one spore in focus under the 

 microscope. Record the temperature, and fix the spore 

 under the eye-piece micrometer, and cover the whole with 

 a darkened bell-jar. Examine the preparation from time 

 to time, and note the stages of germination. Measure the 

 germinal filaments, mycelial branches &c., and plot out 

 the rate of growth on sectional paper. 



(85) Drosera : digestion of white of egg^. 



Drosera may be grown in wet moss in soup-plates : the 

 moss should be running with water which may advanta- 

 ' C. Darwin, Insectivorous Plants, p. 93. 



