[VoL. 2 
798 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
The diastases of fresh Laminaria seem slightly more active 
than those isolated from the dried tissue; however, no other 
carbohydrases were evident than those shown in the previous 
table. 
THE CARBOHYDRASES OF ASCOPHYLLUM NODOSUM AND MESOGLOEA 
DIVARICATA 
The Mesogloea material was dehydrated as soon as brought 
into the laboratory, the preliminary fresh-water washing 
being omitted because of the rapid gelatinization of the tissue. 
The crushed dried tissue, extracted in the usual way, gave a 
very heavy, stringy precipitate with alcohol, consisting, as did 
that from Laminaria, mostly of slime. This, when diffused 
in the usual volume of water, gave a very viscous mixture. 
Crushed fresh Ascophyllum was extracted directly. The 
viscosity of the extract was high, but the alcohol precipitate 
from it came down in a flocculent mass that gave only a 
slightly viscous diffusion with water. 
Experiments were set up with the various carbohydrates 
heretofore employed, including laminarin, and in the different 
series, amounts of the ‘‘diffusion-extract’’ were used varying 
from 5-15 ec. As was true with the Fucus reported in the 
previous study, in no case were there evidences of hydrolysis 
even after 60 days at room temperature. 
THE CARBOHYDRASES OF RHODYMENIA PALMATA 
The air-dried Rhodymenia tissue proved to give rise to 
one of the most viscous extracts encountered in the algae, 20 
volumes of water being necessary to make handling possible. 
With alcohol, a very rubbery, white precipitate came down 
that was made up of a large proportion of algal slime. This 
diffused very slowly, giving an extremely viscous mixture. 
Ten cc. of the ‘‘diffusion-extract’’ were used with the sub- 
strate to determine action, and toluene was added. The flasks 
were kept at a temperature of 21-22°C. for 100 days, sugar 
determinations being made from time to time, the results of 
which are given in table vi. 
The results here are quite comparable to those obtained 
with Ulva and Enteromorpha, the same carbohydrates being 
