[VoL. 3 
468 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
extract of these shavings gave a strong hadromal test with 
phloroglucin and hydrochloric acid. The extracted wood 
gave the purple reaction with chloriodid of zinc. The fungous 
extract lost its activity when boiled. It could be precipitated 
with alcohol and thus yielded a white powder. He called the 
active principle ‘‘hadromase.’’ Von Schrenk (200, p. 12) 
isolated the same enzyme from the mycelium of Polyporus 
subacidus growing in spruce wood. 
After taking into consideration the different types of wood 
decay, it would seem that ‘‘hadromase’’ is a misnomer, since 
it does not act upon hadromal but upon lignin. In some forms 
of decay, such as the action of Trametes Pini upon pine (see 
Hartig, '78, p. 36, and von Schrenk, '00*), the white rot of 
the red cedar produced by Polyporus juniperinus (see von 
Schrenk, ’00, p. 9), and the action of Thelephora perdix on 
the oak, as reported by Helbig (’11) the hadromal and 
other bodies are split up and used by the causal organism, 
leaving pure white cellulose. Should an enzyme which acts 
on hadromal, or the soluble substances giving this red phloro- 
glucin test ever be isolated in these cases, it would lead to a 
confusion in nomenclature. It is proposed that ‘‘ligninase’’ 
be used to designate the enzyme capable of splitting lignin. 
A lengthy list of papers may be cited which deal with 
timber-destroying fungi and which refer in a direct or indirect 
way to the lignin-splitting enzyme. Among these publications 
which have not been cited above may be mentioned the work 
of Biffen (’01) on the biology of Bulgaria polymorpha, of 
Marshall Ward (’97) on cultures of Stereum hirsutum, of 
Buller (705) on the destruction of paving blocks by Lentinus 
lepideus Fr., and (’06) Polyporus squamosus as a wood de- 
stroyer, of Falck (709, 719) on the dry rots of Lenzites and 
Merulius, of Wehmer (712, 714), and various papers by von 
Schrenk (200, 700%, 200, 201, '03, 14, 14). Whether the 
authors mentioned here have isolated the enzyme or not, it 
is probable a priori that the lignin-splitting enzyme is present 
in the fungi with which these papers deal. 
Since Lenzites saepiaria produces a typical brown rot sim- 
ilar to that produced by other dry rot fungi, such as Merulius 
