80 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 



they describe the minute structure of the calcareous plates or 

 coccoliths and rhabdoliths, and record the existence in the cocco- 

 spheres of a single central green chromatophore, separating into two 

 on the division of the cell. They regard Coccosphaeraceae as a group 

 of Unicellular Algae, and they define the group with the limits of its 

 genera and species. The coccospheres and rhabdospheres from the 

 surface are compared with those of the deep-sea deposits and their 

 identity established. They are also compared with geological 

 coccoliths and rhabdoliths from various beds, and many objects re- 

 garded by geologists as true coccoliths and rhabdoliths are rejected. 



A large number of new Peridiniaceae were discovered and are 

 formally described and figured. No specific diagnoses of marine 

 Peridiniaceae have previously been published, authors of species 

 having depended on figures, and, at most, a few words of description. 

 No doubt the present systematic treatment of the subject will 

 conduce to greater order in the group. The authors record the 

 occurrence of all the forms in seven tabular statements, one for each 

 collecting voyage. 



A study was also made of the species of Pyrocystis. of which 

 a new one is described. The facts here recorded tend, in the 

 opinion of the authors, to confirm the view originally expressed by 

 Sir John Murray, its describer, that it is an unicellular alga, 

 though doubts had been entertained of the accuracy of this opinion 

 by several biologists. 



The Missouki Garden 



The ninth annual report of the Missouri Botanical Garden, issued by 

 the director, Professor Trelease, has just reached us. As in the case 

 of previous issues, it contains the garden reports, embellished with 

 photographic reproductions of features of interest, and a number of 

 scientific papers, several of which deal with those dry-loving tropical 

 plants for the growth of which the garden is eminently suited. One 

 of these papers, a revision of the genus Capsicum (which includes the 

 Chili and Cayenne peppers), with special reference to garden varieties, 

 by H. C. Irish, studies an interesting example of the assumption of 

 numerous forms by plants which have been long cultivated. The 

 genus, which is an ally of Solarium, the potato and tomato genus, 

 evidently originated in the tropics of America, whence it was 

 probably first brought to Europe by Columbus, and is now widely 

 spread in the Old World tropics. Linnaeus made four species, and 

 the number of specific names has since so increased as to reach 

 at the present time nearly one hundred, of which the Index 

 Kewensis recognises over fifty as good. Asa Gray, however, 

 suggested that these might perhaps all be reduced to two, and Dr 

 Sturtevant, who made a special study of the genus, collecting and 



