On Two New Kinds of Red Yeast. 



in' 



K. Yabe, Nfgal-ualii. 



Species of red yeast occur very frcquenth' in the air of 

 Japan. In the sake factories, farther, a red colouration of /cop 

 and 7/iofo is not unfrequently observed, which I found also to be 

 due to the cells of red yeast species. This fact induced me to 

 look for the presence of red yeasts in the soil of the rice fields and 

 on the surface of the rice straw. Indeed I soon discerned upon 

 my sugar-gelatine plates two k-inds of such yeasts, the one more 

 intensely coloured than the other. Both kinds agree with Sac- 

 cJiaromyces rosaceous in the principal point that they do not form 

 ascospores , but they differ from it in other respects, leaving no 

 doubt that they represent new species. 



SaccJiaromyces Japoniciis , nov. sp. The cells serving for 

 my investigations were obtained in February 1896 by placing 

 some rice straw in sterilized Pasteiirs solution for five days and 

 preparing with this culture in the usual way a plate, for Avhich a 

 nourishing gelatine served, containing besides the necessary 

 mineral matters some cane sugar and ammonium tartrate. After 

 eight days at a low temperature numerous colonies of mould- 

 fungi and colourless yeast, and a few colonies of red yeast made 

 their appearance with a tendency to grow upward above the sur- 

 face of the plate. From one of the dark red colonies an inocula- 

 tion was made again into Pasteur s solution and on potato, further 

 into a solution containing meat extract aud peptone. 



The cells are elliptic, and approach more neary a globular 

 form when well nourished with meat extract. Size in Pasteur s 

 solution = 6x3 ; in meat extract solutions 9.2x5.1 A< to 10.3 

 x6.l }i. This yeast grows very well on potatoes where it 

 acquires a brillanl red tint. That the full access of air promotes 

 the formation of the red tint is therefore very probable, and this 



