ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 199 



F. Matouschek * describes a new form of the well-known moss — 

 Leucodon sciuroides — which is remarkable for the crisped leaves on some 

 of its secondary branches, apparently not due to injury by insects. 

 The species is not a variable one. This new form — crispifolius — grows 

 near Machendorf in the Jeschkengebirge. 



Mosses of Central Switzerland. f — R. Keller publishes a localised 

 list of 125 mosses gathered by him in October 18'J1, near Lungern in 

 Canton Unterwalden and identified by P. Culmann. The distribution 

 of the mosses of Central Switzerland is only partly known. 



Swiss Cryptogams.^ — E. Fischer publishes a series of notices of 

 all the literature that appeared in 1891 and had any bearing on the 

 cryptogamic flora of Switzerland. He groups them under the three 

 heads, Fungi, Algas, and Mosses, classing the bacteria and lichens 

 under Fungi, and the hepatics under the Mosses. Twenty-one references 

 are cited tinder Fungi, eleven under Alga?, and ten under Mosses. Lists 

 of new localities compiled from the literature under notice are given 

 under the heads, Fungi and Mosses. 



Algee. 



Plankton of the Alt-Ausseer Lake.§ — Carl von Keissler gives a 

 short note on his gatherings in this small Styrian lake. He records 

 nine species, of which three belong to Peridiniacese. Samples were 

 taken from the surface and from other depths down to 10 metres, and 

 short analytical tables are given. 



Diatoms of the Black Sea.|| — C. Mereschkowsky publishes some 

 notes on certain diatoms from the Black Sea, and describes three new 

 species and two new varieties. The author regards a knowledge of the 

 endochrome and the elasoplasts of Navicula scabriuscula (CI. et Grove) 

 Mer. as essential, in order to form a correct estimate as to its systematic 

 position. He gives measurements of the frustules and a figure of the 

 endochrome. 



A list is given of 456 species and varieties recorded from the 

 Black Sea, and this is said to be not exhaustive. An interesting fact 

 in connection with this list is noted by the author, namely, that about 

 forty of the Black Sea species are common in the North Sea and the 

 Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, but have never been found in the Mediter- 

 ranean. He explains this by the theory that in the glacial epoch a vast 

 sea connected the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Aral with the North 

 Sea and the Arctic Ocean ; whereas it was not till comparatively recently 

 that communication was established .between the Black Sea and the 

 Mediterranean, by way of the Bosphorus. A plate containing thirty- 

 two figures and four figures in the text serve to illustrate the author's 

 observations. 



* Tom. cit, pp. 218-9. 



t Ber. (1. Schweiz. Bot. Gesell., Heft xii. (1902) pp. 7C-83. 

 j Tom. cit., pp. 59-75. 



§ Vcrli. d. k. k. Zool.-bot. Gesell. Wien, lii. (1902) pp. 706-8. 

 H Journ. de Bot., xvi. (1902) pp. 319-21, 358-60, 416-30 (2 pis. and 4 figs, in 

 text). 



