202 SUMMARY OF CUKRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



for it the new genus RucUcularia. It consists of a slightly encrusted 

 unicellular thallus, having a main axis and whorls of branches, both of 

 which are constricted at intervals. Branched rhizoids are given off 

 either in place of or immediately below a whorl. The main axis is 

 about 3-5 cm. high and about f mm. thick. Vegetative reproduction 

 takes place by the formation of a transverse wall across a constriction 

 near the base of a branch. Bhizoids are then given off from the next 

 joint above and an independent plant starts its existence. The author 

 thinks he has also found sporangia containing a single aplanospore. 

 The paper ends with a comparison between Rudicularia and neighbour- 

 ing genera. 



Melobesiae.* — F. Heydrich describes three new species and a new 

 form of a previously known species of Lithophyllum, and a new species 

 of Melobesia. The species had already been quoted in a list by 

 M. Hariot. They are preserved in the Paris Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle. 



Characeas of Mark Brandenburg.! — L. Holtz publishes a separate 

 monograph of the CharaceEe as a contribution to the larger work on 

 the Cryptogamic flora of the province of Mark Brandenburg. To this 

 end he has, inter alia, worked through the herbarium of A. Braun 

 which is preserved in the Berlin Museum, and gathered copious materials 

 for his purpose. He divides his subject into two parts ; and devotes 

 the first to a general consideration of the group, the development and 

 structure of the plant, the history, classification, and geographical dis- 

 tribution of the group, and so on. This occupies 42 pages. The rest 

 of the book is concerned with the special study of the Characeas of the 

 province, the characteristics of the district, the sources of information 

 employed, the systematic treatment of the species and forms, a table of 

 the ponds and lakes explored, and the methods of collecting and pre- 

 serving the specimens. Five genera and twenty-seven species are 

 recognised. Full descriptions, and geographical and critical notes are 

 supplied. 



Fresh-water Algae of the North of Ireland.}— W. and G. S. West 

 publish a list of 614 species and 107 varieties and forms, representing 

 189 genera, collected in Lough Neagh and in Donegal, Co. Down, and 

 Co. Louth ; a few species are also recorded from Co. AVicklow for 

 the sake of convenience or as a confirmation of previous records for 

 that county. About 12 new species are described and about 24 records 

 are new for the British Isles, while many others, though known from 

 other parts of the British Isles, are new records for Ireland. The authors 

 note a remarkable scarcity of the genus Vaucheria and of the desmid 

 Euastrum insigne Haas. They also remark on the interesting dis- 

 tribution of the three desmids, Micrasterias furcata Ag., Staurastrum 

 Arctiscon Lund., and Staurastrum iont/ispinum Arch., which appear to 

 be confined to the western shores of the British Isles, i.e. Connemara 



* Bull. Mus. d'Hist. Nat. Paris, viii. (1902) pp. 473-6. 



t ' Kryptogamenflora der Mark Brandenburg. IV. 1. Cbaraceen.' Leipzig 

 1908, vi. and 136 pp. and 14 pis. 



X Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., xxxii. (1902) pp. 1-100 (3 pis.). 



