1915] 
DAVIS—ENZYME ACTION IN MARINE ALGAE 779 
Florideae-starch from Furcellaria fastigiata, that was readily 
hydrolysed to dextrose by malt diastase, and it will be re- 
membered that Bartholemew (714) isolated diastase from 
several of the ‘‘reds’’ that split phanerogamic starch to re- 
ducing sugars. 
Simple sugars.—Very little work has been done on the di- 
and monosaccharides of the ‘‘reds.’? Tihomirov (’10) suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the same yellow amorphous osozone de- 
posits in the tissues of Sphaerococcus crispus and Gigartina 
mamillosa that he had in certain members of the ‘‘greens’’ 
and ‘‘browns,’’ but here, as in the other groups, the specific 
osozone involved could not be determined. 
FATS AS STORAGE PRODUCTS 
Many observations have made it evident that fats in some 
form or other are generally present in the algae, their 
peculiar role, however, having been very little investigated. 
In some of the siphonaceous forms, particularly Vaucheria, 
they seem to replace carbohydrates. Whether fats are to be 
regarded as the first visible products of assimilation in these 
forms is disputed. Some workers hold them to be reserve 
products, some by-products of metabolism. If they are 
utilized as a reserve or storage product in any of the forms, 
one might expect to find evidences of lipolytic action, yet none 
has been reported so far. 
As stated by Czapek (713, p. 761), Loew and Bokorny find 
that Spirogyra and other filamentous forms contain 6 to 9 
per cent of the dry weight as fat. This probably includes 
lecithin. The same authority gives the following results as 
obtained by Sestini, the figures being percentages of the dry 
weight : 
ViGUeneian PIS Sarco atneie evi. 2 ha ise le wae 6 2.94 
UO GUGHUSSUNUD: eck ee Dae iete & 8, De dike odovere Al 
A CWS: VCSTOUMLOSUSS ao orate iorate alteie ell, Se a.as 0) 0s 67 
WQONAG GEOAGTO DUG. s.60 1s tos hese ee aes ess pelle) 
Gracilaria confervoideS .......00eceecenes mlelt 
Konig and Bettels (’05) made a large number of analyses of 
the dry tissues of a variety of marine algae and found a fat 
