/ 



62 SUMMARY OF CUKRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



sions in Eastern Asia by various collectors. Six new species of mosses 

 are described. 



Muscinese of the Galapagos Islands.* — A. W. Evans and W. G. 

 Farlow publish lists of the hepatics and mosses respectively of the 

 Galapagos Islands, basing their reports primarily on the collections 

 made by Snodgrass and Heller in 1898 and 1899, but including also all 

 the previous records for these islands, e.g. by Darwin, Andersson, Baur, 

 Eighteen hepatics and nine mosses are catalogued ; two of the former 

 were indeterminable specifically. At least five hepatics and three mosses 

 are endemic. 



Muscinese of the Atlantic Islands.f — V. Schiffner has worked up 

 the bryophytes of the collections made by J. Bornmiiller in Madeira 

 and the Canaries in 1900 and 1901, and has found among them some 

 novelties, several additions to the flora of the Atlantic Islands, and a 

 number of rare species very sparingly gathered previously. He begins 

 a list of his determinations, supplying descriptions and critical notes 

 where necessary, and recording the geographical distribution. 



Thallophyta. 

 Algse. 



The PyrocystesB.J — V. H. Blackman here embodies the result of 

 observations made on living material, chiefly during a voyage to the 

 West Indies some years ago. Pijrocystis pseudonoctiluca Wyv. Thorns, 

 is treated in detail under the headings of structure, reproduction, 

 distribution, and luminosity. The author succeeded in stimulating 

 specimens of this organism by means of alcohol sufficiently to enable 

 him to study it by its own light under a low power of the Microscope 

 in the dark. From this examination he is led to believe that the 

 radiation of light arises "from the mass of protoplasm surrounding 

 the nucleus." P. fusiformis Wyv. Thorns., P. Lunula Schiitt, and P. 

 Hamulus Cleve are shortly treated, and remarks are then made on 

 amylum-bodies which occur in all four species in the form of clear, 

 refractive bodies, either spherical, oval, or rod-shaped. The author 

 likens them to the so-called amylum-bodies of certain Peridinese, 

 though he considers that their exact nature is at present uncertain. The 

 systematic position of the Pyrocystese is discussed, but, owing to want 

 of knowledge of the life-history of any of the species, the author con- 

 siders their position doubtful. A synopsis of species includes the 

 somewhat doubtful species P. lanceolatus Schroder. A list of references 

 closes this paper. The plate contains figures of the four established 

 species. 



Minute Structure in Triceratium.§ — A. A. Merlin finds T.parallelum 

 and one of its varieties, T. glandiferum, possess a " delicate lacework 

 structure apparently covering the whole of the silex composing the 



* Proc. Amer. Acad., xxxviii. (1902) pp. 100-4. 



t Hedwigia, xli. (1902) pp. 269-72. 



% New Phytologist, i. (1902) pp. 178-88 (1 pi.). 



§ Journ. Quek. Micr. Club, ser, 2, viii. (1902) p. 267. 



