340 Marshall Ward — On a lily -disease . 
the ‘ ferment-drops,’ as they may be termed. They occur in 
cultures growing in extract of raisins, etc., as well as in 
Pasteur’s solution, and so far as I can determine, their forma- 
tion depends not so much on the medium in which the fungus 
is growing as on the stage of development the plant has 
reached. So long as the mycelium is rapidly extending, 
i.e. developing numerous lateral branches, many of which are 
conjugating in the manner described on p. 329, the extrusion 
of the drops is not observable. When a stage approaching 
maturity is reached, however, and rapid growth is ceasing, 
then the tips of free hyphae, and of the branches of organs of 
attachment, may be seen to extrude the drops. 
If a mycelium in this condition is placed upon the epi- 
dermis of a young lily- bud, the branches attack the tissues 
very actively, and destruction follows rapidly, and I may quote 
this as a further reason for believing that the drops contain 
the ferment. If to a mycelium in the condition above de- 
scribed, fresh food is offered, e.g. by adding a small drop of 
the culture-fluid, then active growth and branching etc. re- 
commence, and the extrusion of the drops ceases meanwhile. 
I think these facts point to the probability that so long as 
active growth and increase of surface of the fungus are going 
on, the ferment is not accumulated in undue quantities at any 
particular place, and no doubt the cross-connections estab- 
lished by the conjugating hyphae (p. 329) still further insure 
its distribution : as soon as this distributing process is brought 
nearly to a standstill, however, the ferment still being prepared 
by the protoplasm accumulates in quantities greater than can 
be retained, and breaks through the cellulose-walls in the 
manner described. 
I may add that there is nothing absurd in supposing that 
ferment is still being formed after active growth has ceased, 
for such a preparation of ferment is regarded as taking place in 
the tubers, bulbs, etc. of higher plants during their periods of 
rest 1 , and, further, the fact of the solution of the cell-walls 
Cf. Sachs, Lectures on Physiology, p. 352. 
