210 
PHARMACEUTICAL BOTANY 
secretes diastase, a valuable digestive ferment, having the power of 
converting starch into sugar and dextrin. For centuries the Japa- 
nese have employed this species in the preparation of rice mash for 
Sake, as well as in manufacture of Miso and Soja sauce. The spher- 
ical conidiospores are 6 to 7 /i in diameter and of a yellowish-green 
color. 
Aspergillus jumi gains is a pathogenic species which produces a 
disease in birds, horses, cattle and even though rarely in man that is 
Fig. 90 . — Penicillium brevicaule. a, Conidiophores and simple chains of con- 
idiospores; b, f, more complex conidial fructifications; c, two young chains of con- 
idiospores; d, e, echinulate conidiospores;, g, h, j, sketches of forms and habits of 
conidial fructifications; k, germinated conidiospores. {After Thom.) 
called aspergillosis. The organ most prone to infection by this 
organism is the lung, although the skin, cornea, ears and other parts 
are also subject to its parasitic influence. It produces short coni- 
diophores with sterigmata bearing long chains of rounded, colorless 
conidia 2.5 to 3/1 in diameter. Harshberger 1 cites the presence of 
perithecia in this organism which are nut-brown, globular, 250 to 
350/1 in diameter, and inclose oval thin-skinned asci with eight red 
lenticular ascospores each of which has a diameter of 4 to 4.5/1. 
Aspergillus niger ( Sterigmatocystis niger ) develops dark brown 
1 “Mycology and Plant Pathology,” p. 147. 
