198 Varietäten, Descendenz, Hybriden. — Physiologie. 
Mutsamudu (Madagascar) par M. G. Laurent. Un pied de Teo¬ 
sinte (.Reana luxurians ), prive de sa grappe male a ete feconde par 
une variete de Zea Mays ä grains blancs ä bec. Les caraeteres des 
deux parents sont juxtaposes sur les grains recoltes, la moitie infe- 
rieure de chaque grain etant du type Teosinte, la moitie superieure 
identique au Mais blanc ä bec. Les grains sont associes deux par 
deux comme dans les rangees du Mais au lieu d’alterner comme 
dans le Teosinte et l’ensemble de l’inflorescence serait plus compact 
que celle de la plante mere non hybridee. Ce curieux cas de Xenie 
meriterait d’etre l’objet de nouvelles recherches. L. Blaringhem. 
Armstrong, H. E. and W. H. Glover. Studies on enzyme 
action. XI. Hydrolysis of rafinose by acids and enzymes. 
(Proc. Roy. Soc. B. LXXX. p. 312—321. 1908.) 
The hydrolysis of different glucosides and galactosides by acids 
proceed.s at very different rates. These differences must be due to 
the relative positions, in the molecule, of the oxygen atoms with 
which the hydrolyse is associated and those where hydrolytic Split¬ 
ting takes place. Determinations of reaction velocities of hy T drolysis 
should throw light on structural formula and possibly decide between 
alternative formulae. 
From this point of view the rates of hydrolysis of cane sugar 
and raffinose have been compared under the influence of acids and 
invertase. 
For acids the reaction-velocity for raffinose is about 4 / 5 that for 
cane sugar, while with invertase it is only about 1 / 5 . 
Invertase therefore attacks cane-sugar much more easily than 
the cane-sugar section of raffinose which is “weighted” with an added 
molecule of galactose. 
Further work on this matter is to follow. F. F. Blackman. 
Armstrong, H. E., E. F. Armstrong and E. Horton. Studies 
on enzyme action. XII. The enzymes of emulsin. (Proc. Roy. 
Soc. B. LXXX. p. 321—332. 1908.) 
Previous disagreement with other workers is now shown to be 
due to the unsuspected fact that ‘lactase’ of almonds is not iden- 
tical with ‘lactase’ of kephir grains. The former is a glucolactase 
and retarded by added glucose but not added galactose: kephir- 
lactase is a galacto-lactase and only retarded by galactose. 
The one enzyme may be considered to attach itself to the glu¬ 
cose section of the biose lactose while the other attaches itself to 
the galactose section. 
Caldwell and Courtauld (Paper IX ot this series) have shown 
that “Fischer’s glucoside” (amvgdonitrile glucoside) is formed by r 
action of amy r gdalase and mineral acids on amy T gdalin: it is now shown 
that this glucoside occurs as an intermediate product of hydrolysis 
of amvgdalin by ‘emulsin’. This is shown by the fact that in early 
stages of the action, estimations of free glucose give higher values 
than correspond with the estimated free prussic acid. Finally 
Fischer’s glucoside was actually T isolated. It is now clear that an 
extract of the enzymes of the almond — so-called emulsin — contains 
three specific enzymes: gluco-lactase, amy T gdalase and ^glucase or 
emulsin proper). 
