New YoRK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 155 
body, steel blue in color and having a diameter slightly less 
than that of the hypha. On account of the presence of these 
bodies it was not easy to determine whether there were septa 
at the points of constriction, but it was finally decided that the 
hyphee were non-septate. No sign of fructification was present. 
After a vain endeavor to determine the fungus it was sub- 
mitted to Prof. Geo. F. Atkinson, who at once identified it as 
Leptomitus lacteus Ag. With the name of the fungus known, its 
literature became accessible and it was learned that the fungus 
is one which lives in water contaminated with organic mat- 
ter. In the present case it was feeding upon the small quantity 
of cider drained from the floor of the vinegar cellar. Hum- 
phrey® reports its occurrence at Bridgeport, Conn., in a stream 
below a tripe house; and Gcoeppert’ observed it growing in a 
small stream below a beet-molasses manufactory near Schweid- 
nitz, in Silesia. Humphrey® states that in his studies “it ap- 
peared in fly cultures from waters from the outlets of drains 
containing decaying vegetable matter;” but so far as we can 
learn it has not been previously reported troublesome in drains 
except, perhaps, in a single instance. In the Country Gentleman 
(Vol. 61, p. 406) for May 21, 1896, there is a short article headed, 
“Fungus in Drain.” In this article C. W. B[eak] of South 
Onondaga, N. Y., gives an account of the clogging of his barn- 
yard drain by “a thick scum—looks like the ‘mother’ in vine- 
gar.” By correspondence with Mr. Beak we have obtained ad- 
ditional details of the case and it appears probable that the 
cause of the trouble was Leptomitus lacteus. 
The spherical bodies at the points of constriction in the 
hyphee are so constant and so characteristic that they should 
serve as a mark of identification.” (Plate VI, Fig. 1). They 
°Humphrey, J. E. The Saprolegniacee of the United States, with 
Notes on Other Species. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., 17 (111):186. 
*Goeppert, H. R. Ueber Leptomitus lacteus in der Weistritz. Ber. d. 
Schles.. Gesellsch. f. vaterl. Cultur, 1852, p. 54. (Reference taken from 
Humphrey.) 
PPC Att... Delo. 
*In all of the material examined by us the cellulin grains (cellulin- 
kérner) were found almost invariably at the points of constriction. 
