ENZYME ACTION IN FUCUS VESICULOSUS L. 
B. M. DUGGAR 
Physiologist to the Missouri Botanical Garden, in Charge of Graduate Laboratory 
Professor of Plant Physiology in the Henry Shaw School of Botany of 
Washington University 
AND А. R. DAVIS 
Rufus J. Lackland Fellow in the Henry Shaw School of Botany of 
Washington University 
Little is known regarding the metabolism of the Fucacee. 
The chemical nature of the chief accumulation products has not 
yet been sufficiently investigated. Іп fact, prior to 1905 very 
little work of importance had been contributed on the products 
of any group of the marine alge. Even the chemical deter- 
mination of the carbohydrates, for example, in some of the larger 
groups of alge, afforded no suggestion as to the nature of these 
produets. More activity in this general field of work has been 
manifest, however, since the date referred to. Diverse views 
prevailed regarding the nature of the various granules which had 
been long detected microscopically. In the earlier literature 
Hansteen's (792, '00) opinion has generally dominated, by which 
it was claimed that the granular bodies of the cell—and par- 
ticularly the larger vesicular forms—contain fucosan, а carbo- 
hydrate, which was considered the first visible product of 
photosynthesis. On the other hand, Crato (792, '93) main- 
tained, from microchemical reactions, that the larger vesicles, 
physodes as he called them, contained phloroglucin, or some 
derivative of this body. Miither and ТоПепв (704) found а 
methylpentosan in Fucus and Laminaria, while Koenig and 
Bettels (705) among others found glucose and fructose, as well 
as pentoses and methyl pentoses, in Laminaria after hydrolysis. 
Swartz (711) gives an extensive summary of the previous work 
on carbohydrate occurrence in the alge, and contributes much 
data on the digestion of the hemicelluloses, but she studied no 
brown alge. The existence of reducing sugars in Ғисасев was 
clearly shown by Tihomirow (710). Recently the carbohydrates 
have been more completely investigated by Kylin (712, 718). 
Nevertheless, much remains to be done on these products, while 
ANN. Mo. Вот. GARD., Vou. 1, 1914 (419) 
