( 466 ) 



the washed material under a large (jiiaiitity of 3 " /(, H CI, filtrates, 

 and precipitates Avith alcohol. The precipitate is dissolved in boiling 

 water, precipitated again Avith alcohol and this is repeated until the 

 chlorine reaction disappears. The thus obtained pectine reacts feebly 

 acid and solidifies with pectase -f~ ^ \hne salt, or ^vith alkali -|- a lime 

 salt, into a consistent transparent jelly. 



3. The rotting is caused by microbes and may be called 

 'pectose-fermen ta tion. 



Dissoh'ing and removing of the pectose from the rind of the flax 

 is completely eifected, without any injury of the cellulose wall of 

 the fibres ^), by some microbe species belonging to the moulds and 

 bacteria, and hereupon llie usual rotting methods are based. 



e'p cp f cp cs ecu xy 



Fig. 2 (350). Rotting observed in a microscopic preparation lying in a drop of 

 good rottingwater and consisting of a longitudinal section of the rind and the 

 wood of a flax-stalk. Signification of the letters see Fig. 1, further: se cell of a 

 stoma, or air chamber in the primary lind, Gp Grunulobacter pectinoi-orum, the 

 pectose bacterium proper, Gu Grunulobuder uroceplwJmn. The primary rind cp is 

 seen to decompose into cells by solution of the pectose, and thereby the secondary 

 rind cs and the cambium ca completely liquefy. 



Moulds are the active agents in the very primitive so-called dew- 

 rotting on the field; bacteria on the other hand, in the rotting after 



1) But not of the celhvalls of the rindceJls from which the cellulose itself is 

 also partly dissolved. 



