Study of Spirogyra nitida. 



2K 



caused a total disappearance of the trimethylamine, which 

 proved to be the source of the- odor. It did not reappear 

 even on boiling with potassium hydrate. 



Fresh material boiled with caustic alkalies yields trime- 

 thylamine in considerable quantity. Air-dried Spirogyra 

 also gives it, but in small amount, showing that loss has 

 occurred by drying. 



Loew, in the paper before cited, asserts that the plant 

 contains lecithin because of the trimethylamine evolution 

 when acted upon by caustic alkalies, and states, as a further 

 proof, that he obtained phosphorus from the ether-alcohol 

 extract. He does not refer to the evolution of trimethyl- 

 amine at the ordinary temperatures, and indeed this begins 

 almost immediately upon removing the plant from water. 



While we have considerable evidence to show that 

 chlorophyll is either a substitution product of, or closely 

 allied to/ a lecithin-like body, we believe that the com- 

 pound so formed possesses greater stability than is indicated 

 by such a ready evolution of trimethylamine as we find in 

 Spirogyra. Such behavior is more generally attributed to 



a proteid. 



We have, among plants, a number of instances in which 

 this amine is given off, notably in the Stinking Goosefoot 

 {Chenopodium Vulvaria\ where it is produced by the 

 leaves, and in the Hawthorn (Crataegus Oxyacanthd) in 

 which the small white flowers are the active parts. In 

 these cases the amine is regarded in the light of an alka- 

 loidal waste product, which, being gaseous at ordinary 

 temperatures, is not stored up in the plant tissues. 



Trimethylamine is one of the simplest nitrogenous com- 

 pounds with which we are acquainted. Hence its presence 

 in plant tissues is exceedingly interesting, and the question 

 arises, Is it always present as a katabolic product, or is it, 

 in some cases if not all, produced as one of the primary 

 products in the synthesis of nitrogenous bodies? 



Borodin * has found from his investigations with grow- 



*Bot. Zeit., (187S). 



