RACE OF FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



215 



pure white. Its habitat is generally in dry, loamy 

 soil under pines, though frequently found in sphag- 

 num swamps. 



We have two yellow Lady's Slippers, the larger 

 C. pubcsccns and the smaller C. pariiiflonini. The 

 former is found in moist loamy soil along low moun- 

 tain brooks or swamps. The flowers are pale yel- 

 low and nearly two inches long. It is one of the 

 easiest wild flowers to transplant and seems to 

 thrive in almost any soil. It may be transplanted 

 in spring, in autumn, or even when in flower. The 

 small yellow species, C pannfloruni, is a more local 

 plant, growing mostly in bogs among arbor vita; 

 and tamarack. It is smaller, has fragrant flowers, 

 and its sepals and petals are of a darker purplish 

 tint than in C. piibi'sccns. The lip is pale yellow 

 and much smaller in the true type than in pubes- 

 cens. In some localities the plant is very dwarf, 

 growing in little clumps scarcely eight inches high, 

 with dainty little flowers scarcely a cjuarter as large 

 as an average sized pubescens, while in other lo- 



calities it grows two feet high. In the taller plants 

 there is more variation in the size of its flowers. 

 Some are quite small, while others are nearly as 

 large as those in pubescens. This plant also likes 

 peat or leaf-mould about its roots, but in any moist 

 loamy soil it \\ \\\ thrive. If the soil is quite moist 

 it may be set in the open sunlight. 



The rarest of the tribe is the little Ram"s-Head 

 (C aru'tiiunn). This also occurs in northern New 

 England and occasionally, thence westward as far 

 as Wisconsin. It is abundant in numerous swamps 

 in Canada, but we believe it has not been reported 

 in New England south of Vermont. Though not 

 so showy as some, the small pink, purple and white 

 veined lip is quite interesting. When transplanted 

 into moist loamy soil in the shade it will thrive 

 and even increase in size and in the number of its 

 flowering stalks. A mixture of peat is very bene- 

 ficial. 



Soiithwick, Mass. F. H. Horsford. 



A RACE OF FLOWERLESS PLANTS— III. 



YEAST AND BACTERIA PUTREFACTION 



N THE first article of this series 

 mention was made of some fungi 

 which do not have mycelium, 

 one of them being the yeast- 

 plant. This plant (Fig. A 6) 

 consists typically of a single oval 

 cell of such size that three thousand of them placed 

 end to end would measure only one inch. The yeast 

 plant propagates itself chiefly by a process called 

 budding. A slight swelling is formed near one bud : 

 it enlarges until it is nearly or (juite as large as the 

 original cell, then separates from the parent cell and 

 becomes an independent plant ; or it may remain 

 attached and b}' repetition of the process a chain of 

 several cells may be formed before separation takes 

 place. 



Domestic yeast consists essentially of this ycnst plant, 

 which grows in all yeast bread. In process of growth it 

 forms and gives off large quantities of a certain gas — 

 carbonic acid — which, by its expansive power, forces the 

 particles of dough apart and so causes the bread to 

 "rise." Alcohol is produced at the same time and es- 

 capes in baking or soon afterwards. The production of 

 alcoholic fermentation, as in beer and wine, is the spec- 

 ial property of yeast, and, with slight e.Kceptions, only 

 yeast can produce it. 



The bacteria are closely related to the yeasts. They 

 differ from thera in being, as a rule, smaller and more 

 thread-like, and in their mode of reproduction. They 



AND FERMENTATION PEAR BLIGHT. 



multiply, not by budding, but by cutting themselves in 

 two (A II, 1 5, etc,) A cross-partition is formed and 

 separation takes place sooner or later. In shape they 

 are rounded or in various degrees elongated, simple or 

 pointed, straight, bent, wavy or spiral, and sometimes 

 extremely long and slender. Fig. A (after Cohn) is a 

 general collection of various kinds of bacteria, illustrat- 

 ing most of the typical shapes (all highly magnified), 

 but very many species are known which are not shown 

 here. The different kinds are as distinct as the diflerent 

 kinds of grasses, or pines. 



While yeasts produce fermentation, bacteria causes 

 putrefaction, as in spoiled beef ; but putrefaction is only 

 a special kind of fermentation. There are few species 

 of yeast, but many of bacteria, and as a rule each of the 

 latter produces its own special kind of fermentation or 

 change in the thing it grows in. I'utrefactive fermenta- 

 tion proper we observe in the spoiling of beef (Fig. A 

 8), acetous fermentation in the formation of vinegar, 

 butyric fermentation — rancidity — in butter, and so on. 

 Some kinds produce peculiar and distinctive colors ; as 

 the form shown in Fig. A i, which produces a red color, 

 sometimes seen in spots on bread, looking like drops of 

 blood. Some species ferment and decompose dead veg- 

 etable matter and make soil of it, so that it becomes 

 available again for crops. Recent experiments show 

 that crops cannot grow in a soil destitute of bacteria. 



Again, many species prey upon animals and man, and 

 by causing fermentation or decomposition in the blood 

 or various organs of the body produce fevers and var- 



