1915] 



DAVIS — ENZYME ACTION IN MARINE ALGAE 777 



berg's name, * ' laminarin. ' ' He showed also that Torup's 

 "kreftin" was without doubt a modification of " laminarin. ' ' 

 Kylin ascribes to "laminarin" the same physiological func- 

 tion that starch performs in the higher plants, i. e., that of a 

 reserve product. In a more recent paper ('15) he shows that 

 there is an accumulation of the "laminarin" in the tissues of 

 the algae during the summer months, while during the winter 

 and spring this reserve is drawn upon by the young fronds 

 until by the end of March very little of it is demonstrable. 



Kylin was also able to clear up much of the confusion that 

 has attended observation of the light-refracting granules 

 present in the cells of many members of the group. They 

 had been variously considered as of fatty nature, protein- 

 aceous, tannin-like, and glucosidal. Eeinke (76) demon- 

 strated fat-like bodies in the cells of Fucus that he looked 

 upon as the first visible products of assimilation, a point of 

 view later supported by Hansen ( '93). Schmitz ( '83) claimed 

 two distinct bodies present, one of which, although it did not 

 react with iodine, he called "phaeophyceenstarke," the other 

 giving the ordinary reactions for fats. Hansteen ('92) had 

 observed bodies in the same plant which he maintained were 

 of carbohydrate composition and to which he applied the 

 term, "fucosankorner." Crato ('92, '93), the same year, in- 

 vestigating the fat globules observed by Schmitz, suggested 

 that they were either phloroglucin or a derivative of it, since 

 they colored red with vanillin-hydrochloric acid. This con- 

 ception was held by Bruns ( '94) as well. In a later paper, 

 Hansteen ('00) observed that the "fucosankorner" were 

 formed in the presence of light, and this to his mind indicated 

 that they function as the first assimilable products. Hunger's 

 ('02) work two years later pointed to Hansteen 's "fucosan- 

 korner" as being glucosidal in nature, the carbohydrate at- 

 tached being bound up with phloroglucin, or at times, with 

 tannic acid. Some of the larger "korner" gave fat reactions, 

 some protein. Kylin found three definite bodies in the cell, 

 the nature of which had been confused by earlier workers — 

 fat globules, proteinaceous particles, and tannin-like bodies — 

 these latter probably representing the "fucosankorner" of 



