SAC FUNGI CONTINUED I47 



is snow-white; later it becomes reddish brown. The discovery of 

 perithecia is yet to be made. 



Aspergillus Jlavus plays an important part in the cocoon disease of 

 silkworms. The stipe portion of its conidiophore is roughened by 

 colorless granules. 



AspergiUus luchuensis, according to Inui, is used in the preparation 

 of a beverage Awamori, which resembles whisky and is used in the 

 Loochoo islands. 



Aspergillus tokelau is found in Tokelau, or Samoan disease, attack- 

 ing the natives of certain of the Pacific islands. An important patho- 

 genic species, which causes an epidemic disease of pigeons and lives in 

 the human ear and the lungs of various birds, is AspergiUus fumigatus, 

 which was the cause of a false tuberculosis of a calf in Philadelphia. 

 An autopsy by Ravenel and the writer showed the lung tissue of the 

 calf penetrated by the mycelial hyphae of the fungus, and its conidio- 

 phores bearing the conidiospiores in a f an-Uke manner were seen project- 

 ing into the lung cavities almost completely filling them. It, therefore, 

 grows well at blood temperature, and if its conidiosjjores are introduced 

 into the arterial circulation of animals they germinate and produce 

 serious iUness, which may terminate fatally. It also acts injuriously 

 in certain fermentation processes carried on at high temperatures as 

 certain lactic acid fermentations. It attacks tobacco, decaying 

 potatoes, bread, malt and beerwort. It has dwarf conidiophores o.i 

 to 0.3 mm. long, with club-shaped globules 10 to 20^1 thick, upright 

 sterigmata 6 to 15/4 long and with long chains of conidiospores (2 to 3/i). 

 Nut-brown globular perithecia are found, 250 to 350/1 in diameter, in- 

 closing oval thin-skinned asci (9 to 14/i) with eight red lenticular tough- 

 walled spores (4 to 4.5/1)- As a parasite of the human skin it was called 

 Lepidopkylon. The green mould, which usually grows on malt, is 

 Aspergillus davaius causing a moulding of the substratum. The largest 

 species of the group is Aspergillus giganteus, which looks at first super- 

 ficially like a Mucor, but later owing to its grayish-green conidiospores 

 it is readily separable from the mucor v^etation. Its sterigmata seem 

 to be hollow, communicating with a f>ore-like opening with the center 

 of the conidiophore. No perithecia have been found. Other species 

 are ,4. nidulans (Fig. 50), which can be cultivated readily, A. varians 

 and A. ostianus, the latter distinguished by an ochraceous pigment. 

 The black mould AspergiUus niger more properly SterigmatocysHs niger 



