ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 217 



Form-variations in Cosmarium.*— J. Comere gives an account of 

 some morphological variations of Cosmarium punctulatum, a Desmid 

 which he has studied for some years and has cultivated in various 

 media. He figures some characteristic variations of shape which it 

 exhibits when growing in the natural state. It is easy to cultivate, and 

 will even grow on nutritive gelatin. In concentrated Knopp solution 

 the cells accumulate oil and starch and form hypnocysts. In sugar 

 solutions the cbromoleucites lose their colour and produce starch. In 

 weak nutritive solutions zygospores (rare in the natural state) are 

 formed ; in the absence of nitrates the zygospores are smooth ; but in 

 the presence of nitrates and absence of phosphates, the zygospores are 

 armed as in nature. In normal Knopp solution diluted, peculiar cysts 

 are formed ; the cells fill themselves with oil and assume a reddish 

 brown colour, and become surrounded with an envelope well defined 

 outside, but mucilaginous and granulose within, the cells inside being 

 solitary, paired, or usually in threes, of normal shape, and thus 

 resembling certain Palmellaceae. 



Algae of the Eppendorf Moor.t— M. Schmidt gives an account of the 

 Eppendorf Moor, near Hamburg, with special reference to its algae. 

 He sketches its geographical position and features, and shows how it 

 has served as shooting butts for a regiment. He proposes that it should 

 be preserved as a natural park to save it from being drained and built 

 over. He describes the remarkable flora which charcterises the moor, 

 and calls special attention to the algal flora, which, in 1904, was shown 

 by Heering and Homfeld to comprise 24<s species. He gives a list of 

 the rarer species and supplements it with some new records. The 

 Diatomaceaj and Cyanophyceae of the moor have not yet been investi- 

 gated . 



Fresh-water Algae of Burmah and India. J—W. and G. S. West 

 give an account of a collection of fresh-water algae made by I. H. 

 Burkill mostly in Burmah and partly in Bengal and Madras during 

 1904. The number of genera comprised is 71, with 276 species and 

 16 varieties. New to science are 36 species and some varieties and also 

 two genera, Euastridium and Burkillia. Mougeotia producta is of great 

 interest as combining in its spore formation the characters of both 

 Mougeotia and Goaatonema. And Urococcus tropicus is a green species 

 of a genus in which the cells usually contain an abundance of a red- 

 brown pigment. In addition to a list of some sixteen papers which 

 have a more direct bearing upon the collection, the authors provide a 

 general bibliography of ninety-eight items. 



Fresh-water Algae of Java.§ — G. S. West publishes, under the 

 title Botanical Synonyms in the Desmidiaceae and Protococcoideae, a 

 series of criticisms and corrections of the determinations in a recent 

 paper by C. Bernard upon Protococcacees et Desmidiees d'eau douce, 



* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, liv. (1907) pp. xlii.-xlvi. 



t Bot. Zeitung, lxvii. (1909) pp. 1-7. 



I Ann. Roy. Bot. Garden, Calcutta, vi. (1907) pp. 175-260 (7 pis.). 



§ Journ. of Bot., xlvii. (1909) pp. 60-64. 



April 21st, 1909 Q 



