566 
Notes , 
influences shown by the spores on germination. Not only will they 
germinate and live for some time in water, and under almost anaerobic 
conditions, but he found them germinating in 26*5 per cent, solutions 
of common salt; 30 per cent, solutions were too much for them, 
however. He states also that the vapours of cedar-oil, iodoform, 
napthalin, camphor, and patchouli do not prevent germination; 
though those of clove-oil, ether, alcohol, chloroform, and acetic acid 
prevent it. The maximum for alcohol was somewhere between 4-2 
and 6*2 per cent. In acetic acid they germinated in twenty-four days 
in solutions of 1 : 2 56, but failed to do so in solutions of 1 : 64, 
whereas in HC 1 they germinated in two days in 1 : 4 solutions. 
As regards temperatures, it is well known how resistant the spores 
are. A striking instance of the hardships the mycelium can undergo is 
given by Woronin 1 : he found Penicillium vegetating on the melting 
snow, where the temperature at night fell below o° C. 
Bourquelot 2 found invertase, maltase, trehalase, emulsin, inulase, 
diastase, and trypsin in the allied Aspergillus , and pointed out how 
suggestive this is in explaining the ubiquity of this mould. Probably 
Penicillium is equally rich in capacity for enzyme-production. 
Miyoshi 3 showed that Penicillium can bore through cellulose 
membranes, and no doubt similar chemotactic phenomena are con- 
cerned in the piercing of wood-elements by the hyphae. 
It certainly looks as if Penicillium may be a much more active 
organism in initiating and carrying on the destruction of wood than 
has hitherto been supposed, and that it is not merely a hanger-on or 
follower of more powerful wood-destroying fungi. It is also, doubtless, 
very independent of antiseptics. 
H. MARSHALL WARD, Cambridge. 
A METHOD 03? OBTAINING MATERIAL FOR ILLUS- 
TRATING SMUT IN BARLEY. — By sowing soaked, skinned 
barley that had been plentifully covered with Ustilago spores a supply 
of smutted barley may be ensured, and in such material it is easy 
to trace out the spore formation. 
Hand-sections of the ear when about § inch long showed the 
1 Arb. d. St. Petersb. Naturf.-Ver., B. xx, p. 31. 
2 Bull. Soc. Mycol., 1893, p. 231. 
3 Bot. Zeit., 1894, H. 1. 
