442 Physiologie. — Algae. 



lack of salicase or salicin. The saligenol must therefore be directly 

 transformed and catechol is the endproduct of this transformation. 



From the young shoots a mixture of enzyms was obtained, 

 which contained catalase and two other oxydases, which differ from 

 laccase and tyrosinase. They were named after their typical reac- 

 tions saligenolase and caticholase and may be separated by heat; 

 after heating to 85° C. only the latter has been destroyed. Catecho- 

 lase without saligenolase oxydises catechol to a black substance, 

 both together evidently form from saligenol the same product. The 

 most obvious hypothesis is therefore to assume, that saligenolase 

 forms catechol from saligenol. 



In any case this oxidation of saligenol is quite different from 

 that in the laboratory, when salicylic acid is always the final product. 

 In the living plant this black substance never appears, but it onty 

 occurs in necrobiosis, therefore it seems to the author that catecho- 

 lase and catechol are separated from each other in the cells, but 

 that this is not so with saligenolase and saligenol, so that the enzym 

 can act and form catechol, which cannot be decomposed unless in 

 necrobiosis. 



In the former paper the author investigated the changes or 

 salicin and catechol in branches, budding when placed in water in 

 the dark: and now the same was done with branches budding while 

 attached to the plant. The glucoside diminishes and catechol increa- 

 ses but relation of increase and decrease differed more from the 

 theoretical value, because at the expense of salicin also populin 

 (benzoylsalicin) was formed. 



By using a press juice obtained from Aspergillus niger the 

 populin was hydrolysed and a quantitative determination was pos- 

 sible, but only when this glucoside is present in large quantities, 

 for the press juice also contained emulsin, invertin and maltase. 



In order to utilize this mixture for the determination of populine. 

 the increase of reducing sugar at the action of the press juice was 

 to be diminished with that obtained after the action of imulsin, 

 invertin and maltase. Populin was formed in large quantities in the 

 normal shoots, but is wholly absent from etiolated shoots: quite the 

 same was found for different Populus species. 



These species howewer contain so small quantities of the gluco- 

 side, that an investigation of the physiological behaviour of populin 

 was difficult. From Populus monilifera populase was obtained, an 

 enzym which splits off benzoic acid from populin, so that the for- 

 mation of catechol as endproduct of populin hydrolysis is very 

 probable. 



The examined species of Populus contain considerable quantities 

 of Saccharose, which plays the part of a reserve material. 



Th. Weevers. 



Lewis, I. F., The Life History of Griffithsia Bornetiana (Ann. 

 of Bot. XXIII— XCII. Oct. 1909. p. 639—690.) 



This is a very complete study of the life-history of the species 

 in question. G. Bornetiana occurs commonly from Northern Massa- 

 chusetts south to Long Island Sound, and has been recorded 

 from New Jersey. In all plants examined, with two exceptions, the 

 antheridia, cystocarps, and tetraspores are borne on separate indi- 

 viduals. The spores develop quite rapidl} 7 in the open; indeed, bits 

 of cotton cloth, tied to piles near mature plants, showed in two 



