1915] 
DAVIS—ENZYME ACTION IN MARINE ALGAE 773 
nucleate with an unstated amount of crushed seaweed. The 
temperature during the incubation period varied from 21 
to 26°C. for the different forms used. The following are his 
results for 100 ec. of substrate: 
TABLE I 
Phosphorus as P205 
Alga Days megms. 
Cladophora frusta...........- 57 54.3 
Cerammm rubrum............ 51 76.6 
Griffithsia setacea............ 37 62.5 
Phormidiwm sp.............-- 15 90.0 
Zaleski crushed growing tips of Vicia faba, added water 
and an antiseptic, and allowed this material to autolyse at 
34°C. for 4 days. At the end of that time the control flask 
showed a free phosphorus content of 13.6 milligrams and the 
one containing the active enzyme 51.2 milligrams. We have 
no means of knowing even the relative amount of enzyme 
present in any of these experiments and yet it seems that the 
algal nuclease compares very favorably with that isolated 
from the fungi and the higher plants. 
The classes in plant physiology at the Marine Biological 
Laboratory, Woods Hole, for several years past have quali- 
tatively determined diastase in Ulva lactuca. Bartholemew 
(714), working on the question of starch in the Florideae, 
conclusively demonstrated diastase present in such ‘‘reds”’ 
as Polysiphoma variegata, Dasya elegans, Agardiuella tenera, 
and Ceramium sp. In order to isolate the enzyme, he used 
the ordinary method of precipitation by alcohol from an 
aqueous extract of crushed tissue. Starch as paste was 
hydrolysed rather slowly to an undetermined reducing sugar, 
presumably dextrose, 5 cc. of .25 per cent starch paste with 
a relatively large amount of the enzyme material requiring 
from 6 to 9 days for the completion of hydrolysis. Micro- 
scopic observation of the attacked starch grain showed corro- 
sion similar to that caused by the translocation diastase of 
the barley. Torup (Krefting and Torup, ’09) had previously 
isolated an enzyme from fresh Lamar that hydrolysed the 
characteristic storage carbohydrate of that alga, laminarin, 
to dextrose. 
