XVI.—An Investigation of the Mucorales in the Soil

Abstract

The Mucorales have a wide geographical distribution and for seventy years they have been the subject of investigation both in Europe and in America. In this country, however,little research has been done on this group, the only workers being Bayliss-Elliott (1930) who has investigated the microflora of the Dovey salt marshes, Dale (1912, 1914) who examined the fungus flora of soil at Cambridge, and Brierley (1923, 1927, 1928) who has done considerable work on soil study. Although certain of the Mucorales were isolated by the last named, he was mostly concerned with the general methods of soil culture. The important quantitative technique was devised by Brierley (1927). Oudemans and Koning (1902) were the first to show the presence of Mucors in the soil. They examined the soil fungi in Holland and isolated two new species of Mucors. Möller (1903) investigated the fungi found in Pine mycorrhiza and obtained a further four new species. Hagem (1907, 1910) studied the morphology and physiology of seventeen Mucors from the soil of Norway, seven of which were new species. In 1908 Lendner published his “Les Mucorinées de la Suisse,” an important contribution to the study of this group of fungi. A criticism which might be levelled at this work is that it is difficult to ascertain from it whether or not Lendner used pure cultures on which to base his descriptions. He merely states that “dilution methods used in Bacteriology were employed,” no mention of monospore cultures being made. Further important work on this group has been done by Korpatschewska (1909), Namy-slowski (1906, 1920), Naumov (1914, 1924, 1935), Ling-Young (1930), Johann (1932), Jensen (1912, 1931), and in theKryptogamenflora der Mark Brandenburg(1935) Zycha gives a complete revision of the classification of the Mucorales. A survey of the geographical distribution of this group of fungi is found in the work of Niethammer (1935), while further classification has been done by Linnemann (1936). In America, Povah (1917) and Waksman(1916, 1917, 1922, 1927) have both added considerably to our knowledge of the Mucorales in the soil.