[Vou. 2 
778 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 
Hansteen. He holds that none of these are to be considered 
the first visible products of assimilation, and suggests that 
here, as in most phanerogams, carbohydrates function in that 
role. 
Simple sugars.—As far as is known, Tihomirov (’10) was 
the first to definitely demonstrate simple sugars in these 
plants. He used the same phenylhydrazine method employed 
with the‘‘ greens,’’ but as was the case there, was unable to con- 
nect the osozones with definite sugars. The osozones took con- 
siderable periods of time to form, in some cases as long as five 
months, evidence pointing to the low concentration of sugars 
in the cell. It is a question, too, whether during this long 
period of incubation some of the more highly condensed carbo- 
hydrates in the cell were not hydrolysed far enough to give 
the sugar tests. Using the same method, Kylin (713) was 
unable to substantiate these results. However, by using 40 
per cent alcohol as an extracting agent, precipitating the in- 
organic material with lead acetate, and then purifying with 
alcohol, he was able to obtain reducing sugars from several 
of the Fucoideae, particularly Laminaria digitata, L. sac- 
charina, Ascophyllum nodosum, and Fucus vesiculosus. In 
all cases Seliwanoff’s test for fructose was positive, while 
dextrose was demonstrated by its osozone. These sugars he 
considers the first products of assimilation referred to above. 
RHODOPHYCEAE 
Polysaccharides —The so-called Florideae-starch has been 
the source of many investigations, from the time of Nageli 
(758) and Van Tieghem (’65) to the present day. Although 
not identical perhaps, it is very similar to the starch of the 
higher plants, and as very generally held, it undoubtedly funce- 
tions in the same manner. Meyer (’95), Kolkwitz (’00), 
and Bartholemew (’14) hold the opinion that it repre- 
sents a combination between true starch and dextrin, 
while Biitschli (’03) suggests the possibility of its being a 
transitional stage between amyloporphyrin and amyloery- 
thrin. Kylin (’13) considers it as standing midway between 
starch and dextrin. This investigator succeeded in isolating 
