56 ANIMAL COLOUEING MATTEES EXAMINED AT THE 



The results arrived at will be publislied in extenso in tlie Quart. 

 Journ. Micros. Sc, but I may here briefly refer to tlie most import- 

 ant facts which I came upon. 



Does the spectrosco'pe siipport the supposition that symhiotic AJgse 

 are present in Antedon rosaceus ? The answer is decidedly no, as 

 neither chlorophyll nor chlorofucin is present in any of the extracts 

 of tliis Echinoderm. I found that if tbe stomach with its contents 

 was removed before the extraction with alcohol, ether, &c., the 

 above result was obtained, but if allowed to remain then chlorophyll 

 (from the food) was present. This decides the question. Krukenberg 

 has figured a chlorophyll band in his map of the alcohol extract of 

 Antedon which led me to suppose that I should also find it, but the 

 result was as described. Dr. P. Herbert Carpenter* has come to 

 the same conclusion, by studying the morphology of the supposed 

 alg^e and the pyriform oil-cells of Wyville-Thomson, which Vogt 

 and Yungt took to be the amoeboid spores of these algae. Apart 

 from spectroscopic proof the latter were found neither to possess a 

 cellulose wall nor to contain starch, and as they are easily seen to 

 grow out from the surface of the integument, being attached to it 

 by their nai-rower parts, it is not easy to see how they can have been 

 mistaken for anything else but what they are. The red pigment of 

 Antedon I found not to be identical with Moseley's antedonine, and 

 in the complete paper the points of difference are referred to at 

 length. 



The ether exti'act was found to contain a lipochromej probably 

 allied to Kiihne's xanthophan. 



The red pigment itself easily goes over into glycerin, alcohol, and 

 partially into water. It gives no well-marked bands ; its colour is 

 destroyed by acids, and more or less changed by alkalies. 



Krukenberg's paper, TJeher die Farhstoffe von Comatula mediter- 

 ranea, will be found in his Yergleichend-physiologische Studien, 

 zweite Reihe, dritte Abth., 1882. 



Other Echinoderms. — The fine violet colour of Asterias glacialis 

 can be extracted by fresh water, but the solution gives no bands ; 

 the colour is diminished by ammonia and by caustic potash, and is not 

 much affected by hydrochloric acid. Alcohol extracts from the 

 integument a lipochrome allied to Kuhne's rhodophan,§ but ether 

 * Notes on Echinoderm Morphology, Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci., Jan., 1887. 

 t Traite d'Anatomie Comparee Pratique, Livr. 7, 8, pp. 519 — 572. 



X The lipochromes (Krukenberg), or fat-piguients, include those formerly known as 

 luteins, also tetronerythrin and the chromophanes of the retina, &c. They give bands in the 

 violet half of the spectrum, and become in the solid state blue or green by HjSO^ and HNOs^ 

 and in some cases blue or green with I dissolved by means of KI. The last test often fails 

 in the case of animal lipochromes. All lipochromes are soluble in such solutions as ether, 

 chloroform, bisulphide of carbon, &c. 



§ Kiihue, Uuters. a. d. physiol. Inst. d. Univ. Heidelberg, Bd. i, 1878 ; Bd. iv, 1882. 



