Glycine fermentation by nongas forming anaerobic Micrococci.

distilled water. The medium was prepared by placing 40 to 50 sterile rice grains in each sterile petri dish containing 25 ml of sterile distilled water. After hydration the rice grains became submerged beneath a thin layer of water, which discouraged the growth of molds. Twenty samples of soil from various sources were tested by this method. The results of a few of these are shown in table 1. Samples of water from various rivers, creeks, and springs were tested for the presence of Chromobacterium sp., but none was found in any sample. Figure 1 is a photograph of a plate culture of a strain of Chromobacterium sp. growing on rice grains, suspended in distilled water. Eighteen strains have been isolated by streaking and restreaking on plain nutrient agar until purity of each culture was assured. Some of the isolates were identified as Chromobacterium violaceum while others resembled Chromobacterium amethystinum. Identifications were made using the key to the genus in Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology (Breed et al., 1948). The author hesitates to assign species names to the isolates until a more thorough study of them can be made. It is quite apparent that the present key to the genus is rather inadequate. It would appear from these results that the natural habitat of some strains of Chromobacterium sp. is soil rather than water. The occurrence of Chromobacterium sp. in soil appears to be wide spread rather than local. The factors which control their numbers in soil have not been determined.