THE 
HEW PHYTOIiOGIST. 
Vol. XV, No. 7 . July, 1916 . 
[Published September 6th, 1916]. 
ON THE REMARKABLE RETENTION OF VITALITY OF 
MOSS PROTONEMA. 
By B. Muriel Bristol, M.Sc. 
[With Three Figures in the Text]. 
I N October, 1915, a collection was made of about fifty samples of 
soil taken from different parts of the country, with the object 
of ascertaining by means of cultures what algae are present in 
different soils in the form of resting-spores. Among the soils 
collected were eleven most interesting samples very kindly provided 
by Dr. T. Goodey. These were taken from specimens upon which 
he had already worked in connection with the protozoa of the soil , 1 
and had originally been obtained in 1912 from the sample house 
at the Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden. At this 
station, samples of soil have been taken periodically since 1843 
from the different experimental plots, and have been stored in 
bottles, the corks of which have been sealed with leaden capsules 
to prevent the loss of the contained water by evaporation and to 
insure against the possibility of infection by dust. The soils appear 
to have been partially dried by exposure to the air, and then passed 
through a sieve having £-inch meshes, before being bottled. 
All of the samples used in the present work were taken from 
the top 9 inches of soil; seven were taken from the Broadbalk plot 
in the years 1846, 1856, 1865, 1868, 1869, 1881 and 1893 respectively, 
one from Agdell in 1867, one from Barnfield in 1870, one from 
Hoosfield in 1868, and one from Geescroft in 1865. 
In setting up cultures of the soils great care was taken to 
prevent infection from outside, by a preliminary sterilisation of all 
vessels and instruments to be used, and of the culture medium into 
1 T. Goodey, M.Sc., “ Note on the Remarkable Retention of Vitality by 
Protozoa from Old Stored Soils.” Annals of Applied Biology, Vol. I, 
Nos. 3 and 4, 1915. 
