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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 (713) 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 hydrolysing certain proteins. Casein and peptone in alka- 
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 
enzymes. Still further evidence of the presence of the first 
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 Chlamydomonas, 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 
