[Vou. 2 
806 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
Results —These negative results do not necessarily argue 
against the production of slime through the agency of 
enzymes. It is impossible to exactly reproduce the conditions 
of the cell in vitro, and enzymes which might act upon cellu- 
lose in the living tissue to produce slime might easily be in- 
hibited from action on cellulose or hemicellulose under the 
conditions of the experiments. Grtss (710) found that fresh 
cherry gum contained cytase, but that none was demonstrable 
in the older gum. He also found that malt diastase would 
not act upon such gum until the tannins had been removed. 
It is known that the algae do contain tannins or ‘‘tannoidal’’ 
bodies, the writer having demonstrated a ‘‘tannoid’’ content 
in Ascophyllum of 1.1 per cent of the dry weight. These, or 
other agents, could be involved in the partial or complete in- 
hibition of cytolytic action. On the other hand, indirect evi- 
dence, at least, points to the presence of the galactan and 
pentosan groups as due to their being laid down as such, that 
is, they do not arise as the direct result of hydrolytic enzyme 
action, but probably represent the final step in the condensa- 
tion of those particular hemicelluloses. Tschirsch (’89) and 
his students have shown that the algal slime exists as an in- 
tracellular substance, and they hold that in most instances, 
at least, it does not arise from the cellulose. This seems to 
be the logical view, and we in turn seem justified in looking 
upon the galactan and pentosan groups in the algae as normal 
products of the plant’s metabolism, present at all stages in 
the plant’s growth, and capable of giving rise to gelatiniza- 
tion at any time upon the adsorption of water. If one ex- 
amines, for instance, such forms as Fucus, Mesogloea, and 
Chondrus, the slime is hardly detectable when the plants are 
growing under normal conditions, but when brought into the 
laboratory and placed in fresh water, a rapid adsorption 
begins at once. The dissolved salts in sea-water are un- 
doubtedly the inhibiting factors in such adsorption under 
normal conditions. 
That this inhibition is not bound up with the living cell may 
be shown by the simple experiment of killing two fronds of 
Chondrus, for example, and placing one in fresh, the other 
