New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 163 
conditions such as age and temperature. Various experiments 
were undertaken to determine the relation of these matters 
to enzym formation, having in mind especially the conclusions 
of some previous investigators that enzym production in cer- 
tain cases is a starvation phenomenon. 
De Bary (1886) looked upon the GinGteniioen ian products | 
of the enzym of Peziza sclerotiorum, which dissolves the 
middle lamella of the cell walls of various plant tissues, as 
the chief source of the nutrition of the fungus mycelium. He 
thought some sugar, available as food for the fungus, to be 
the product of the enzym action on the host cell walls. He 
considered, however, that the enzym was similarly concerned 
with action upon the protoplasm of the host. 
Ward (1888) concluded that the similar wall-dissolving 
euzym produced by the lily Botrytis is a starvation phenom- 
enon. Brown and Morris (1890) consider starvation to be 
a stimulus to cytase as well as diastase secretion in germi- 
nating barley. They also (1893) found that diastase forma- 
tion occurs more actively in leaves during the night and con- 
cluded that this is attributable to the exhaustion at that time 
of soluble food,and hence is to be classed as a starvation 
phenomenon. 
Careful comparisons have been made as to the enzym 
product from growths upon several media® varying widely in 
nutritive elements and especially in carbohydrate content. 
These have included: 
1. Dunham’s peptone solution (1% Witte’s peptone, 0.5% 
sodium chloride) ; a medium upon which this organism makes 
a very weakly growth. 
2. The same plus 2% cane sugar. In this the organism 
makes a poor growth as compared with beef broth, but the 
clouding is estimated to be twice as dense as in the simple 
Dunkham’s solution. This growth is of short duration, how- 
ever, owing, probably, to development of acidity, which in- 
hibits or even kills the organism. 
®‘ For details as to composition of the various culture media used in our 
work and the relative development of the organisms on these media, see 
Vt. Sta. Rpt., 18: 314. (1900.) 
