Biffen—A Fat- Destroying Fungus . 365 
three or four hours, washed for twenty-four hours in running 
water, and gradually dehydrated in alcohol. 
Before my investigations had gone very far, it became 
evident that the Fungus in question was one of the Hypo- 
creales 1 , probably belonging to the group of the Nectrieae; 
but on this latter point I cannot at present speak with 
certainty. The evidence for this is given in detail below. 
The conidia are elliptical in shape, with thin, smooth walls 
(Fig. 1 a) ; each contains a single nucleus, one or more highly 
refringent bodies, and on staining with an alcoholic extract of 
alkanet-root the presence of small quantities of oil can be 
detected. Single conidia placed in hanging drops of nutrient 
gelatine began to germinate in twenty-four hours at a tem- 
perature of 16 0 C. The mycelium grew rapidly, and the 
refringent bodies passed out into it, and in a short time 
showed signs of diminution in size. The first septum appeared 
when the mycelium was about six times as long as the spore. 
The first-formed cells could always be distinguished from 
those formed later, even in an old mycelium, on account of 
their being shorter, more swollen, and full of vacuoles. Each 
has, as a rule, one well-marked nucleus. The mycelium 
branches vigorously in all directions, and after about six days 
many of its hyphae turn abruptly from their original course 
in order to grow alongside other hyphae, rarely fusing with 
them however (Fig. 1 b). In this way strands, containing 
a dozen or more hyphae, are formed which give the masses 
of mycelium a characteristic coarse appearance. After a time 
the ends of these strands fray out, and the hyphae forming 
them abstrict conidia terminally and singly (Fig. 1 b), The 
formation of these conidia takes place at a great pace ; in one 
case eight were formed in sixteen hours from the apex of 
a hypha. 
On staining the mycelium with Delafield’s haematoxylin 
at this stage, it appeared to be crowded with nuclei, there 
being often as many as twenty or thirty in a single young 
segment (Fig. 2). In the older parts of the mycelium, however, 
1 See Lindau, in Engler’s Pflanzenfamilien, I, 1, p. 343 et seq. 
