MOULD, or MOULDINESS, the common name of many minute fungi which make their appearance, often in crowded multitudes, on animal and vegetable substances. either in a decaying or in a living but morbid state, To the naked eye they often seem like patches or masses of tine cobweb, and are discovered by the microscope to consist of threads more or less distinctly jointed, sometimes branched. Some species of mold occur on many different substances; other seem to be peculiar to substances of particular kinds. as pears, decaying gourds, etc. Some of the moulds belong to the suborder of fungi called physomyeetes. See Fu or. One of these is the COMMON MOULD (mumr mucedo), so plentifully found on fruit, paste, preserves, etc., in a state of incipient decay, the progress of which it hastens. It consists of cobweb-like masses of threads, from which rise many short stems, each bearing at the top a roundish membranous blackish spore-case.—A nearly allied, and also very common species, is ascophora voiced°, which forms a bluish mould on bread. From a spreading cobweb-like bed rise long slender branches, terminated by spore-eases, of which the vesicle collapses into the form of a little pileus.—Au interesting species of mould, remarkable for its luxuriance and beauty of colors—at. first white, then yellow, with orange spore-cases, then shining green or olive, and with threads often several inches long—grows on fatty substances.—Other species of mould are ranked among hyphcmayeetes, a suborder of fungi, having a floccose thallus and naked spores. One of these is the BLUE MOUD (aspergillus glaucus), which imparts to cheese a flavor so agreeable to epicures, and perhaps marks it as in a con dition most suitable for promoting the digestion of other aliments, of which epicures eat too much. Advantage is often taken of the fact that a small portion of cheese affected with mould will speedily infect. sound cheese into which it may be introduced.
It is one of the few cases in which the propagation of these fungi is ever desired and sought after by man.—SNOW MOULD (lanosa nivalis) is found on grasses, and especially on barley and rye beneath snow, often destroying whole crops. It appears in white patches of a foot or more in diameter, which finally become red as if dusted with red powder.
Even living animals are liable to be injured by fungi of this kind. Silk-worms are killed in great •numbers by one called MUSCARDINE (q.v.), or SILK-WORM ROT. ' Such fungi are sometimes developed on the mucous membrane and in internal cavities of verte brated animals; and on the bodies of invertebrate animals, as the common house-fly, which, in the end of autumn, when it becomes languid, often dies from this cause. Even strongly-scented substances, if moist, are liable to be attacked by mould of one kind or other; nor are strong poisons, either animal or vegetable, a sufficient safeguard. Aseophora mueedo, springs up readily in paste full of corrosive sublimate; and the myce lium of moulds is found in strong arsenical solutions.. The only sure preventive of mould is dryness. Many of the moulds vegetate is liquids, but do not attain their per fect development, only appearing as filamentous and flocculent mycelia. The vinegar plant (q.v.) is an instance of this kind.
Mildews and moulds are very nearly allied.
The rapidity with which these fungi are produced is marvelous. "In favorable cir cumstances, a through every stage.of growth to perfect maturation of its .Pf.1 seeds in less than two days, the threads which sustain the ripe sporangia being so long, and yet so delicate, as to make it a marvel that they can remain erect. —(Berkdey.)