1904 | CURRENT LITERATURE 231 
ACCORDING TO Molliard and Coupin® the sterigmata and basidia of 
Sterigmatocystis nigra, when grown in a medium without potassium, have a 
conidia are produced, but of smaller size and with thinner walls than normally — 
occurs. Often these conidia appear on the ends of simple radiating branches 
without a central head, somewhat after the manner of Penicillium; or the 
swollen head may be produced with its basidia, which bear conidia directly 
without the intervention of sterigmata at all, somewhat as in Aspergillus. 
Conidia which germinate in absence of potassium are apt to produce chlamy- 
dospores very soon, sometimes immediately upon germination. The control 
cultures, wherein the fungus grows normally, differ from those which exhibit 
the above phenomena only in the presence of 0.6%" of K,CO; in 1500 of 
medium. Both control and experiment cultures contain 0.4 2" of MgCOs3, so 
it is hardly possible that the response is due to the anion CO,. The difference 
in osmotic pressure between the two is so slight as to be negligible. The last 
two points are not considered by the authors.— B. E. LIVINGSTON. 
IN A SERIES of digestion experiments upon the mannans and galactans of 
certain leguminous and other seeds and of the tubers of several orchids, 
Hérissey has demonstrated a new enzyme, or group of such bodies, which he 
terms seminase.23 Seminase is a soluble ferment, best obtainable from 
alfalfa (lucerne), but it has been found in Aspergillus niger and to some 
extent in the tubers of certain Orchidaceae. It has the power to render 
soluble both mannans and galactans, producing mannose and galactose, 
respectively. Alfalfa seeds which have been germinated at a temperature of 
27~30° C. for from 36 to 48 hours yield the maximum amount of the ferment. 
The body obtained from these seeds acts upon the carbohydrates of other 
seeds, upon those of orchid tubers, etc., but fails to have any effect upon those 
of palm seeds, although the latter yield mannose when hydrolyzed with weak 
mineral acid, Although the seeds of alfalfa, etc., even in the resting state, 
contain seminase, yet at no stage of their germination has the author found 
mannose or galactose present in quantity sufficient for identification.. Cane 
sugar is generally present, however, and the author believes that mannose 
and galactose are only a transition state, and that these bodies pass as soon 
as formed into some other carbohydrate, perhaps cane sugar.— B. E, 
LIvINGsTOoN. 
22 MOLLIARD, M., and CouPin, H., Influence du potassium sur la morphologie du 
Sterigmatocystis nigra. Rev. Gén. Bot. 15 :401-405. pl. 17. 1903. 
73 HERIssEY, H., Recherches chimiques et physiologiques s 
mannanes et des galactanes, par seminase, chez les végétaux. Rev. Gén. Bot. 
15+ 345-368, 406-417, 446-463. 1903. 
ur la digestion des 
3 B 
