104 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
[Vol. 8 
Material taken directly from fermenting vats in China by Dr. Yamei Kin, 
formerly of the Bureau of Chemistry, shows strains of this character. 
Inoculating material furnished by Dr. Teizo Takahashi for experimental 
work on the fermentation of soy sauce or shoyu proved to be a member of 
this series. Dr. Takahashi had selected his strain for this type of fermen- 
tation from among several recognized and studied by him in Tokyo. Our 
thanks are due to Dr. Takahashi for discussing his views upon the group 
of organisms used by the fermentation industries of his country. These 
forms showed variations toward the sake organism and others markedly 
of the ''flavus'' type. All of these strains are regarded by him as varieties 
of Aspergillus oryzae, not A. flavus. In the fermenting samples examined, 
the dominant organism in every case has been nearer A . flavus in the sense 
of Brefeld and Wehmer than A. oryzae (Ahlb.) Cohn. The same condition 
is readily disclosed by cultures from certain of the koji products distributed 
under the patents^ of Takamine in which the name A. oryzae is used, not 
A . flavus. Although the study of strains widely separated in the series gives 
easily measurable differences, comparison of large numbers of strains from 
many sources furnishes intermediate forms which break down the value of 
such contrasting characters. All of these forms show mixtures of yellow 
and green color when grown on Czapek's solution agar which, when com- 
pared with Ridgway's plates, are found to be closely related. The whole 
group is found to possess conidiophore stalks and conidia with walls pitted. 
Stalk walls when examined with low magnification are often recorded as 
delicately rough, and conidia as delicately rough or spiny. Careful exami- 
nation with high powers shows these appearances to be due to pits. Upon 
the ripe conidia the pits, instead of being circular, are commonly elliptical, 
giving an appearance sometimes designated as areolate. 
Variations in length and diameter of stalk, thickness of wall, and number 
and arrangement of sterigmata are found, but the texture and markings of 
the walls, the formation, shape, and development of parts appear to link 
together related forms, hence to have value in characterization. Accuracy 
in these observations becomes, therefore, essential. Johnston^ notes dis- 
crepancies in the description of the same culture by different workers. 
We find the same difficulty in our own notes. Cell walls examined with 
the lower powers, especially the dry objectives, may be recorded as rough or 
spinulose. The same cell walls examined with the apochromatic objective 
appear pitted. It has been found necessary to make many examinations of 
each species or strain studied, both separately and in comparison with other 
related forms. 
The data used in this paper have been obtained by using a Zeiss 3 mm., 
N. A. 1.30 apochromatic objective with a Zeiss 12 x compensation ocular. 
^Takamine, J., U. S. nos. 27401; 525.820; 525.823; 525.824. 
^Johnston, J. R. The entomogenous fungi of Porto Rico. Bull. Board Commrs. 
Agr. Porto Rico 10: 17. 1915. 
