[VoL. 3 
456 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
sion, triacetin, methyl acetate, ethyl acetate, and ethyl 
butyrate. 
Olive oil emulsion was made according to Bloor’s (714) 
method, which was previously reported from this laboratory 
by Davis (215). Ten cubic centimeters of olive oil were dis- 
solved in hot, absolute alcohol. This was run through a hot 
funnel to which was attached a piece of glass tubing drawn 
out to a very fine jet. The fine stream of oil in alcohol was 
run into 100 ce. of cold distilled water, which was constantly 
stirred. The milk-white emulsion was finally boiled to drive 
off the alcohol, then was diluted to 500 ec. with distilled water. 
The other substrates were made up in 1 per cent solutions, 
and if kept any length of time toluol was added as an anti- 
septic. All substrates were used according to the following 
example and were always set up in duplicate: 
(1) 25 се. ethyl acetate + 5 cc. enzyme dispersion + toluol. 
(2) 25 се. ethyl acetate +- 5 ee. enzyme dispersion (auto- 
claved) + toluol. 
(3) 25 се. ethyl acetate +- 5 се. water + toluol. 
(4) 25 се. ethyl acetate + equivalent weight meal + toluol. 
(5) 25 се. ethyl acetate + equivalent weight meal (auto- 
claved) + toluol. 
The results show that the lipolytic action on neutral fats 
is very slight, if any, but that on the esters of the lower fatty 
acids it is more marked. As Reed (713) observed for Glom- 
erella rufomaculans, here the acetates are better substrates 
than the butyrates. Methyl acetate is more strongly hydro- 
lyzed than ethyl acetate. 
Table п shows the results of the action of the esterases in 
the mycelial meal and the enzyme dispersion from the myce- 
lium. These cultures were incubated for 24 days at a tem- 
perature of 25-30°C. Table m shows the lipolytic action in 
the sporophores under the same conditions. Since the 
mycelial meal includes the sawdust upon which the mycelium 
grew, the results obtained for the mycelium and sporophores 
are not comparable, but from the results on methyl acetate 
it can be readily seen that the esterase activity in the mycelium 
is stronger than in the sporophores. 
