[Vol. 2 



828 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



this is not so surprising perhaps for sucrose and lactose, it is 

 difficult to understand the failure of enzymic hydrolysis of 

 maltose. The results obtained by Kylin ('13) indicate that 

 both dextrose and fructose are found in algal tissues, and 

 reasoning from results found for plant and animal tissues in 

 general, it seems, as is true in those cases, that in the algae, 

 maltose must be broken down to glucose before assimilation 

 can take place. The failure to isolate this enzyme points to 

 the possible presence of some inhibiting factor, rather than 

 to the non-formation of the ferment. 



Lipases, acting very slowly, appear wide-spread in algae, 

 being demonstrable in all the forms used in this study except- 

 ing Ascophyllum. Along with the fact that fats are very 

 generally found in the algae, these results are significant in 

 that they indicate the importance of the role these compounds 

 may play as assimilatory products. It is not thought, as was 

 advanced by Reinke ( 76) , Hansen ( '93) , and others, that these 

 fats function as the first products of assimilation, but rather, 

 that they act as storage products of more or less importance. 



The algae, in general, show the presence of enzymes capable 



of hyd 



Casein and peptone in alka 



mes 



line and neutral solution prove the most favorable substrates 

 of those tested, although legumin and albumin are also slightly 

 attacked. The " greens" and the "reds" are about equally 

 active in this way, the "browns," as usual, acting more slowly. 

 The fact that both native proteins and peptones were 

 hydrolysed, points to the presence of both tryptic and ereptic 



Still further evidence of the presence of the first 



if 



of these was the splitting of the protein molecule from nuclein 

 preceding the action of nuclease. 



Amidases seem not to be formed by any of these algae. The 

 results obtained with Clilamydomonas, from which the 

 amidases were isolated when the alga was grown on a medium 

 containing asparagin and peptone as a source of nitrogen but 

 not when the nitrogen was in the form of ammonium sulphate, 

 indicate that such amidase formation may depend upon the 

 nature of the supply of assimilable organic nitrogen. This has 

 a distinct bearing upon the reason for the increased growth of 



