42 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



his Catalogue of the Mesozoic Plants in the British Museum 

 collection, has made a further contribution to the subject. 

 He proposes the generic term Algites "for those fossils 

 which in all probability belong to the class Algae, but which 

 by reason of the absence of reproductive organs, internal 

 structure, or characters of a trustworthy nature in the deter- 

 mination of affinity, cannot be referred with any degree of 

 certainty to a particular recent genus or family ". At first 

 sight this appears to be a retrograde movement, but on the 

 whole it is a wise conservatism, and the only danger I can 

 foresee is in the genus being made a convenient limbo for 

 fossils which by no probability belong to the Algae — new 

 Eophytons and Spirophytons and the like. Mr. Seward will 

 have to jealously guard a genus of such elastic characters. 

 No one can withhold sympathy from the cautious step he 

 has taken, since it will no doubt often happen in the future 

 that fossil remains indicating Algal nature will come to be 

 recorded by men who would shrink from calling them by 

 generic names that suggest modern affinities like Caulerpites, 

 Chondrites, etc. It is very much the same position as that 

 adopted early in this century by Dawson, Turner, Robert 

 Brown and others in the study of the living forms. They 

 retained the name Fucus for hosts of Algae which they knew 

 to be far other than congeneric until a proper system of 

 classification could be established. Mr. Seward describes 

 Algites Valdensis, an Alga with the dichotomous habit of 

 Chondrus crispus, Dictyota, Nitophyllum, etc., among living 

 forms and Algites catenelloides, the specific name of which 

 describes its resemblance to a well-known Floridean form. 

 Mr. Seward also describes the oogonia of a Chara, viz., CJi. 

 Knowltoni Seza., and he reminds us of another Ch. faccardi 

 Heer recorded from the Wealden and another species of 

 Saporta's from the Jurassic system. It is highly probable, 

 however, that these forms ought properly to join the assem- 

 blage of problematic Charas that extend back to the Lower 

 Devonian Carboniferous sandstones. Another Chara of 

 Secondary age has recently been described by Knowlton (as 

 noted by Mr. Seward) from the Upper Cretaceous Bear 

 River formation of North America. Mr. Seward's own 



