92 



oxidizable substances in the stimulated plant parts? By a series 

 of careful experiments Czapek demonstrated that there was no 

 decrease in the amount of oxidases present, but that they were 

 inhibited by some influence, this influence later proving to be an 

 anti-enzyme. He showed that the anti-enzyme thus formed 

 really neutralized the oxidizing enzyme in definite proportion; 

 that it was specific for that one plant, less so for the genus and 

 not at all for distantly related plants; that heating a mixture of 

 anti-enzyme and enzyme to 62° destroyed the former, the latter 

 then regaining its original activity. Czapek demonstrated also 

 that the anti-enzyme does not exist at all in unstimulated parts 

 of the same plants, but later is produced in them upon stimulation. 

 This anti-enzyme has the power of inhibiting the normal oxida- 

 tion of the homogentisic acid in the plant, so that after stimula- 

 tion, both the homogentisic acid and the anti-enzyme make their 

 appearance and accumulate. However, Graefe and Linsbauer^^ 

 report that they were unable to find the increase of reducing 

 substances in stimulated parts as claimed by Czapek. 



Laboratory of Biological Chemistry, Columbia University, 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 New York. 



[To be continued) 



CHONDROPHORA VIRGATA IN WEST FLORIDA 



Roland M. Harper 



Ninety-three years ago that sagacious botanist, Thomas 



Nuttall, proposed as a new species Chrysocoma virgata* describing 



it at some length, and remarking that it was allied to C. nudata 



Mx., but might easily be confounded with Solidago tenuifolia. 



The locality given for it was "On the borders of swamps in New 



Jersey, near the sea-coast." In 1836 A. P. DeCandolle included 



this species and a few others in his new genus Bigelowia,\ and 



cited a specimen collected "in Florida prope Savannah." 



*'' Graefe and Linsbauer. Zur Kenntniss der Stoffwechselanderungen bei geo- 

 tropischer Reizung. Sitzber. Wien. Akad. I. Abt. ii8: 907. 1909. 

 *Gen. 2: 137. 1818. 

 t Prodr. 5: 329. 1836. 



