128 
Biffen. — On the Biology of 
glucose, a view which is partially supported by the frequency 
of the occurrence of glucoside-splitting enzymes in wood- 
destroying Fungi 1 . To test this, a number of cultures on 
oak-wood saturated with five per cent, solutions of glucose, 
laevulose, maltose, cane-sugar, and xylose were made, on the 
assumption that where the glucose was already available the 
Fungus would no longer need to decompose the wood to 
obtain it, and also to see, if this was indeed the case, whether 
glucose could be replaced by any other sugar. 
These cultures were examined at fortnightly intervals, and 
at first looked promising, for in every case except that of 
the glucose-saturated wood the mode of attack was normal. 
However, after the action had continued for six weeks the 
glucose-saturated wood showed the characteristic symptoms 
of attack, although, as subsequent analysis proved, glucose 
was still present. 
At the same time it is worth noticing that the cotton-wool 
plugs at the base of the tubes usually produced a fine crop 
of ascophores, so that it might seem that the delignifying 
enzyme was not absolutely necessary for the welfare of the 
Fungus, since the plugs and watery extract of wood could 
contain no lignin. However, on attempting to grow the 
Fungus on cotton- wool soaked in a watery extract of oak-wood 
its development was so slight that it became certain that 
the necessary nutriment had been conveyed in the former 
case through the mycelium connecting the blocks to the 
cotton wool. At the present time our knowledge of the con- 
stitution of lignin and of the structure of the lignified cell-wall 
is exceedingly slight 2 . According to Czapek 3 the lignified 
walls are composed of a hadromal-cellulose ester, which 
under the influence of the enzyme hadromase is split up, 
leaving a cellulose basis. Thus after treating wood with an 
aqueous extract of Merulius iacrymans , it shows the cellulose 
reaction when treated with Schulze’s solution, while the 
1 Bourquelot, Bull, de la Soc. Myc. de France, tom. viii, p. 13, 1892. 
2 Vide Green, Sci. Prog., vol. vi, p. 344, for a summary and literature, 1897. 
3 Czapek, ibid. 
