1916] 
ZELLER—PHYSIOLOGY OF LENZITES SAEPIARIA 477 
28°C. for 4 weeks the sugar content of the substrates was de- 
termined as glucose by the Shaffer method already mentioned. 
The results of these determinations are reported in table x. 
In the light of these results, there is no doubt that cellulase 
is present in the mycelium of Lenzites and that its activity 
can be measured quantitatively. The little activity shown 
in the fruiting bodies is probably due to the small amount of 
superficial mycelium which was removed from the substrate 
TABLE X 
QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATIONS OF SUGAR PRODUCED BY THE CELLULASE 
OF LENZITES SAEPIARIA 
Reducing sugar as glu- N 
Amount of tissue powder in cose in 50 cc. of sub- 
50 cc. of pine wood-cellulose strate after 28 days 
t glucose 
above controls 
Mycelium | Sporophore | Mycelium | Sporophore 
mg. mg. mg. mg. 
3 Ием pow WEE 6.479 0.99 3.271 0.28 
n be ER, tri Oe AXES... 
расата е alone....... Negliibie] ....- ЕЕЕ ке: 
when the sporophores were collected. It is almost impossible 
to get purely fruiting tissue without some such closely con- 
nected vegetative tissue, and it is also impossible to say 
whether or not the enzymes diffuse from the adjacent myce- 
lium to the base of the fruiting bodies. 
A series of quantitative cellulose determinations has been 
made to establish further the cellulase activity in L. saepiaria. 
It was thought that possibly there might be established some 
relation between the percentage in reduction in weight due 
to deeay by the fungus and in the loss in cellulose due 
to the cellulase, or some relation between either of these 
and the specifie weight of the substrate. But three de- 
terminations with their eontrols have been made. Blocks 
of yellow pine, approximately 1 12 inches, were dried to 
constant weight and weighed, and the volumes were taken by 
immersion in mereury. From these figures the specific weight 
was computed. These blocks were sterilized in jars plugged 
with cotton, inoculated with L. saepiaria, and incubated under 
