CAROTINOIDS IN THE CRYPTOGAMS 121 



extract ngar (b.c. 2.3 per cent, agar one per cent). Colonies when 

 transferred to porcelain plate give blue color with concentrated H 2 S0 4 

 and UN**.;, ami blue microscopic crystals with former (lipocyan reac- 

 tion, Zopf). Pigment is slowly extracted by warm absolute alcohol 

 and when thus extracted is soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, 

 methyl alcohol, ben/.ene and petroleum ether. The alcoholic solutions 

 show two absorption bands, one covering the F line, the other between 

 F and G. The pigment is not saponifiablc. It develops in the dark 

 as well as in the light. 



B. Chrysogloia. The yellow pigment produced corresponds exactly 

 in properties with that of B. egrcgium. 



J/. (Staph.) aureus. The yellow pigment shows the same prop- 

 erties described for the above mentioned bacteria, according to Zopf. 



Spaerotilus roseus. A red bacteria giving a yellow to yellowish-red 

 alcoholic extract. Strips of filter paper immersed at one end in the 

 extract showed in time three zones, a wide red zone over which was a 

 narrow yellow zone and over this a very narrow brownish zone. The 

 yellow pigment was soluble in water and the red one in alcohol, ether, 

 chloroform, ligroin, petroleum ether, benzene and carbon disulfide. 

 After saponification and extraction with petroleum ether the pigment 

 showed all the properties of "eucarotin," the absorption bands in 

 alcohol lying at 492-474u|i and 456-442u|i. The properties described 

 are strongly indicative of carotin. 



There is much less certainty regarding the character of the pig- 

 ments in the other species of bacteria examined by Zopf, although 

 the pigment is ascribed by Zopf to "lipochrome." The red color of 

 M. (Staph.) apatelus and M. (Staph.) superbus is stated (1889c) to 

 be a red lipochrome which gives the microscopic blue lipocyan crys- 

 tals with concentrated H 2 S0 4 . The red pigment of M. (Staph.) rho- 

 dochrous and M. (Staph.) Erythromyxa gives the same reaction. Old 

 colonies of these two bacteria show scarlet or blood-red crystal aggre- 

 gates under the microscope (dark field), according to Zopf (1891). 

 These crystals are soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, petroleum 

 ether, benzene and carbon disulfide and these solutions are charac- 

 terized by showing only one wide absorption band in the spectroscope 

 at F. The pigment is not saponi liable. It is not clear whether this 

 pigment is one of the known carotinoids or is to be classified with the 

 red "carotinins," which have been repeatedly mentioned, and the 

 determination of whose relation to the carotinoids is greatly to be 

 desired. Overbeck (1891), who has studied the physiology of pig- 



