ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICKOSCOPY, ETC. 239 



Oocystis and Eremosphaera.* — G. I. Playfair pubKshes a mono- 

 graph of New South Wales species of Oocystis and Eremosphaera. He 

 draws attention to the polymorphism of Eremosphaera and its connexion 

 with Oocystis, and he gives new and original diagnoses and figures of as 

 many as possible of the species and forms hitherto published of these 

 two genera. He confirms the observations of Chodat on E. viridis 

 concerning its polymorphism, and figures the Glceocystis type, the 

 autospore and the chloroplasts. Four new varieties are proposed for 

 E. viridis, var. acuminata, var. ovalis, var. doliformis, var. nodosa. For 

 the genus Oocystis the author gives detailed accounts of the species and 

 varieties, with novelties and new combinations. 



Tuscan Algae .f — G-. Bargagli-Petrucci writes on the microscopic 

 flora of the borax-region of Tuscany. The lower algse are abundant 

 and impart even to hot arid localities a green tint, in vivid contrast to 

 the white, yellow and ochraceous mineral incrustations. Ten species 

 are recorded, determined by A. Forti. They are Glceocystis vesiculosa, 

 Chlamydomonas sp., Dimorphococcus sp., Stichococcus variabilis, Hariotina 

 sp., Polyedrium sp., Chromulina Rosanoffii, Hapalosiphon laminosus, 

 Fhormidium Valderianum, Nitzschia Palea. 



Phycoerythrin in Nostoc commune.^ — E. Teodoresco records the 

 presence of genuine phycoerythrin in Nostoc commune. He refers in 

 his paper to the work of Gaidukov, who noted the resemblance between 

 the properties of the violet colouring matter of Oscillaria sancta and 

 those of the red pigment of Ceramium and the violet or purple pigment 

 of Ghondrus crispus. The work of Bocat, however, supplied the stimulus 

 to a research on the subject. That author extracted from Oscillaria 

 Cortiana a pigment which he considered closely allied though not 

 identical with true phycoerythrin. Teodoresco followed up Bocat's 

 work by examining many fresh-water Cyanophyceas. The only satis- 

 factory experiment was that on Nostoc commune, material of which was 

 collected in the month of June in the Botanical Garden at Bucharest. 

 The plant had grown on a sunny slope covered with moss and grass, 

 and was of a brownish or yellowish blue, not greenish blue as is usual. 

 The pigment extracted from this material presented, after most careful 

 examination, the same bands of absorption and relative intensity as 

 those of phycoerythrin. The red pigment of N. commune is not a 

 variety of phycocyanin, since it does not contain the most characteristic 

 spectroscopic band which is common to the three sorts of phycocyanin. 



New Laminaria for France (L. Lejolisii).§ — C. Sauvageaii describes 

 how last September he discovered at Roscoff a strange species of 

 Laminaria, which he calls provisionally L. Lejolisii. It was growing 

 among L. flexicaidis, from which it was at once to be distinguished by 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xli. (1916) pp. 107-47 (3 pis. and 28 figs, in text). 

 See also Nuov. Notar., xxviii. (1917) pp. 124-5. 



t Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital., n.s. xxii. (1916) pp. 389-411. See also Nuov. Notar. , 

 xxviii. (1917) pp. 132-3. 



X C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris, clxiii. (1916) pp. 62-4. 



§ G.R. Acad. Sci. Paris, clxiii. (1916) py. 714-16. 



