161 THE PROBABLE BACTERIAL ORIGIN OF THE GUM OF LINSEED MUCILAGE. {Bacilli LiNi,i.-n., n.spp. ) By R. Greig Smith, D.Sc, Macleay Bacteriologist to the Society. That the production of gum or slime in plants may be due to bacteria, can be readily understood in those cases in which the production is evidently abnormal such as the gummosis of the Sugar-Cane and the gum-flux of certain members of the Legu-minosa3, Rosacese, etc. But when the formation of gum, slime or mucilage is a normal or presumably normal feature of a plant as in Tilia, Linum and the Quince, it is not so easy to believe that the origin may be bacterial. Still, since it has been proved by the author that many of the vegetable gums have a bacterial genesis there is the possibility that the vegetable mucilages, which are after all but varieties of gum, maybe the products of bacteria even when these occur normally in plants. I have examined the tissues of the Lime, Quince and Linseed bacteriologically, and in all cases I have found slime-forming bacteria, but as Linseed is perhaps the most important economi-cally, I shall in this paper deal with it. It is a matter of common knowledge that the seed of Linum usitatissimum contains practically no starch, and that the digestible carbohydrates consist chiefly of mucilage. Much of the mucilage is found as a layer on the outer surface of the seeds, and when these are soaked in water the mucilage swells but does not to any extent dissolve. It may be removed mechanically and a slime obtained. 11
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