ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
525 
tion of ginger-beer. It occurs as jelly-like semi-transparent yellowish- 
white masses, aggregated into brain-like lamps, or forming deposits at 
the bottom, and presenting a general resemblance to kephir. Prof. 
Ward finds that it consists essentially of a symbiotic association of a 
specific saccharomycete and a specific schizomycete, both new, which 
he proposes to name Saccharomyces pyriformis and Bacterium ver mi forme. 
Iu all the specimens examined, Mycoderma cerevisise and Bacterium aceti 
were also met with, and, as foreign intruders, some or other of the 
following : — (1) a pink or rosy yeast-like form, Cryptococcus glutinis ; 
(2) a small white microbian top-yeast, with peculiar characters, and 
not identified with any known form; (3) the ordinary beer-yeast, 
Saccharomyces cerevisise ; (4) three, or probably four, unknown 
yeasts of rare occurrence ; (5) a spore-forming bacillus which liquefies 
gelatin with a greenish tinge; (6) a large spore-forming bacillus 
which also liquefies gelatin ; (7 and 8) two, perhaps three, other 
Schizomycetes not identified; (9) a large yeast-like form which 
grows into a mycele, Oidium lactis ; (10) a common blue mould, Beni - 
cillium glaucum ; (11) a brown torula-like form, Dematium pullulans ; 
(12) one, or perhaps several, species of torula, of unknown origin and 
fate. 
Saccharomyces pyriformis is an anaerobic bottom-yeast, forming 
spores, and developing large quantities of carbon dioxide, but forming 
little alcohol. It has also an aerobic form, in which the cells are club- 
shaped or pyriform. It inverts cane-sugar and ferments the products, 
but does not ferment milk-sugar. Bacterium vermiforme occurs as 
filaments or rodlets, curved or straight, encased in a remarkably thick 
firm gelatinous sheath, and decidedly anaerobic. 
Culiviting the Ascospores of Yeast. 5 " — Prof. J. C. Arthur states 
that vigorous actively growing yeast-plants which are transferred directly 
to moist slabs of plaster of Paris, develope their ascospores with great 
rapidity ; the sudden change from a condition with abundance of nutri- 
ment to one with almost total absence of it, appears to favour their 
development. The method pursued by Prof. Arthur was to add a little 
yeast taken from a fresh cake of Eleischraann’s compressed yeast to a 
Pasteur solution. In a day or two the liquid was poured out of the flask. 
Some of the flocculent material adhering to the glass was spread upon 
the surface of a freshly made cake of plaster of Paris, and the whole 
covered. In a few days an abundant crop of ascospores was obtained, 
which were easily coloured by methyl-violet. 
African Uredineae.t— Herr P. Magnus describes a collection of 
Uredinese from the Italian colony of Erythrsea on the Eed Sea, among 
which is an interesting new species Pucciniastrum Scliweinfurthii , 
parasitic on a species of Bhamnus. Its mycele permeates whole 
twigs and branches of the host, fructifying on the under side of the 
leaves, and producing a true “ witch-broom.” The secidium of 
another species, Phoma Acacise, produces a similar malformation on 
Acacia etbaica. 
* Bot. Gazette, xvii. (1892) pp. 92-3. 
t Ber. Deutscli. Bot. Gesell., x. (1892) pp. 43-9 (1 pi ). 
