78 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



• 



upon a study of living material of P. sumatrana collected at Buitenzorg, 

 in Java. He gives an emended description of the structure and de- 

 velopment of the plant, of the spores and their germination. He treats 

 of the ecology of the plant, and of the conditions of its life. In a third 

 chapter he describes the experiments made to ascertain the conditions of 

 reproduction of the plant in different liquids. 



Rhodochytrium a Parasitic Alga.* — G. F. Atkinson describes a 

 remarkable parasitic alga, Rhodochytrium spiJanthidis Lagerh., found in 

 North Carolina on the leaves and stem of the common Composite plant, 

 Ambrosia artemismfolia. The zoosporangia were discovered after much 

 search. The plant had been previously found by Lagerheim near Quito, 

 Ecuador, in 1889, upon SpiJanthes, another member of the Composite. 

 The two localities are therefore separated by a tropical zone, and the 

 question arises, whether this distribution is natural, or has been brought 

 about by importation. The structure and development of the alga, its 

 sporangia, and zoospores, are described. According to Lagerheim it is 

 related most nearly to the Phyllobiurn of Klebs. 



Green Coloration of Oysters caused by a Diatom.t— C. Sauvageau, 

 in a rejoinder to D. Corazzi, summarises the arguments in favour of the 

 contention that the green coloration of oysters at some stations is due to 

 the blue diatom, Navicida ostrearia, citing especially the direct experi- 

 ments which have been made with the diatom to demonstrate the 

 rapidity with which the oyster acquires the green colour. 



Adriatic Diatoms. J — B. Schroder describes some new and rare 

 diatoms found in plankton taken from the Adriatic. They are Lepto- 

 cylindrkus adriaticus sp. n. ; Striatella interrupta (Ehrb.) Heiberg ; 

 Biddulphia peUucida Castracane, forma ; B. pelagica sp. n. They were 

 collected at various dates, and are preserved at the zoological station 

 at Rovigno. 



Fishing Spoiled by AlgaB. — G. Besana announced in 1898 an 

 invasion of Ulothrix Umaetka Lemmerm. into Lake Como ; and now he 

 describes an extraordinary development of diatoms in the same lake in 

 December 1907 and January 1908, so bad in fact as to render fishing 

 impossible. The diatoms concerned are Tabellaria fenestrate Kuetz". 

 and Lysigonium varians De Toni. 



Italian Diatoms. — A. Forti || describes and figures Aulacodiscus 

 miocenicus, a new fossil species of diatom from Bergonzano, near Reggio 

 d' Emilia, in Italy. He also describes^ and figures Pyxilla Sqivinaboli, 

 a new fossil species of diatom from Piedmont and from Reggio. D. G. 

 Antonelli ** publishes a list of seventy diatoms found in the torrent and 

 mineral waters of Aspio, near Ancona, A chemical analysis of the 

 waters is given. 



* Bot. Gaz., xlvi. (1908) pp. 299-301. 

 t Bordeaux : Destout, 1908, 23 pp. 



j Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xxvia (1908) pp. 615-20 (figs.). 

 § Rivist. Mens, di Pesca, x. (1908) u. 1, 2.' 



|| Padova : Serninario, 190S, 2 pp. (pi.). See also Nuov. Notar., xx. (1909) (ine^. 

 f Atti Soc. Nat. Mat. Modena, ser. iv. x. (1908) 2 pp. (fig.). 

 ** Atti Poutif. Accad. Rornana d. Nuov. Lincei, lxi. (1908) pp. 79-93 (fig.K 



