526 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Auvergne. With the exception of a certain number from the Puy de 

 Mur all the species recorded belong to fresh-water. Out of a total of 

 160, 67 are new to Auvergne and, among those, 39 species and varieties 

 are new to science. 



Lincolnshire Diatoms.* — A. Smith gives a list of 4G forms repre- 

 senting the diatom flora of Clee near Grimsby. 



Atlantic Plankton.f — R. N. Eudmose Brown, reporting on the 

 plankton and botany of the ' Scotia's ' voyage out to the Falkland 

 Islands, says that DiatomaceaB were usually scarce in the gatherings, but 

 Peridinieas, especially the genera Ceratium and Histioneis, were plentiful. 

 Pyrocystis nocUluca abounded off the coast of Brazil. Some marine 

 algas were gathered at the islands visited. At St. Paul's Rocks two 

 species of Caulerpa were obtained. There were but few opportunities 

 for collecting land-plants. 



Plankton of Lake Nyassa and other Mid- African Lakes.J — 

 W. Schmidle publishes the results of Dr. Fiilleborn's collection of floating 

 Cklorophyceas and CyanophyceEe in several lakes in Central Africa. In 

 the first part of his paper he deals with the topographical conditions of 

 Lake Nyassa, together with a description of the collector's methods of 

 capture. Then he details the specimens found, arranged according to 

 locality, speaks of the composition of the limnoplankton, the influence 

 of the shore-flora on the plankton, that of the Nyassa on the potamo- 

 plankton of the Shire, the flora of the bottom of the lake, the vertical 

 and horizontal distribution, the influence of weather and time of day, 

 the quantity of the hauls, and the seasonal distribution. In the second 

 part of the paper the plankton of the following lakes is given for 

 comparison : Victoria Nyanza, Rukuga, Malomba, Ikapo, Chungruru, 

 and the crater lakes Wentzel (Nyozi) and Itende. 



Studies on the Comparative Development of LaminariaceEe.§ — 

 J. Reinke divides his observations into two groups : descriptive and 

 theoretical. In the former, which he prefaces by remarks on the syste- 

 matic position of the genera Chorda and Adenocystis with regard to 

 Laminariaceas, he deals with the development of the genera Laminaria, 

 Saccorhiza, Agarum, Lessonia, Lessoniopsis — under which new name the 

 author describes Lessonia litoralis Farlow — Nereocystis, 3Iacrocystis, 

 Alaria, and Egregia. Under Alaria are mentioned the allied genera 

 EcJclonia, Ulopteryx, Eisenia, and Pterygophora. The author deplores 

 our lack of knowledge as to the germination of spores in this order, and 

 hopes that work may be clone on this point, at least for the European 

 species. Another important point in the comparative morphology of 

 Laminariacea3 is the question as to whether the splitting of the thallus 

 takes place in the same manner throughout the order or not. The 

 author is of opinion that the method is the same. 



The theoretical part of the paper is divided into " The Laminariaceae 

 and the phylogenetic problem " and " The Laminariaceae and Haeckel's 

 ' biogenetic law.' " 



* Naturalist, 1903, p. 122. 



t Scot. Geogr. Mag., xix. (1903) pp. 175-6. 



% Engl. Bot. Jahrb., xxxiii. (1902) pp. 1-33; Hedwigia, xlii.(1903) BeibL.p. 125. 



§ Stud, vergl. Entwickl.-Gesch. Laminariaceen, Kiel, 1903, pp. 1-67 (15 figs.)- 



