218 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



recoltees a Java.* Bernard enumerated 326 species and varieties, and 

 illustrated them with 580 figures. He described two new genera and 

 eighty-seven new species and varieties, and appended a bibliography of 

 ninety-three works. West complains of the inaccuracy of many of 

 Bernard's figures and of the absence of many necessary side and ver- 

 tical views. He also complains that Bernard apparently bas omitted to 

 consult sundry important works on tbe Desmids of Britain, tropical 

 Africa, South America, Koh Chang in Siam, and Burmah. West first 

 reduces or condemns tbirty of Bernard's new species, and tben points 

 out the inaccuracy of some forty-five other determinations. 



Desmids of Sydney, N.S.W.f — Gr. I. Playfair publishes some de- 

 scriptions and figures of Desmids collected in the suburbs of Sydney. 

 Among them are five new species and thirty-six new varieties or forms. 

 One of the localities, Coogee, is a small Sphagnum bog with a distinctive 

 Desmid flora abundant in late autumn, April and May. 



Yorkshire Diatoms. $ — M. H. Stiles gives a list of eighty-six species 

 and varieties of diatoms collected in fresh-water at four stations by 

 members of the Yorksbire Naturalists' Union during their July excur- 

 sion to Hampole near Doncaster. 



Metachromatic Bodies in Vaucheria.§ — G. A. Nadson and L. P. 

 Brullowa describe the occurrence of numerous metachromatic bodies in 

 Vaucheria repens. They occur among the cell nuclei. The material 

 was fixed in iodised alcohol, and the bodies can be demonstrated by 

 staining with hematoxylin, or better by staining witb methylen-blue 

 and decolorising with 1 p.c. sulphuric acid. In the past the bodies 

 have been mistaken for smaller nuclei or for degenerated nuclei. Their 

 nature is quite unknown. 



Invasion of Colpomenia sinuosa.|] — C. Sauvageau gives a further 

 account of the appearance, prevalence and disappearance of Colpomenia 

 sinuosa in the oyster-beds of France. He has now ascertained that 

 even before 1906 the alga had been noticed in the oyster-parks near 

 Vannes — for several years in fact, but in small quantity. It was only 

 in 1906 that the formidable multiplication of this plant took place and 

 wrought havoc in the oyster-beds. It spread to Cherbourg and 

 St. Vaast, and even to Torquay and Swanage in 1907. In June 190S 

 it again abounded at Cherbourg, producing remarkably large specimens 

 (15 cm.). In August 1907 some small specimens of it were found on a 

 wreck at Wimereux, indicating a possible means of transport for the 

 alga. In September 1907 small very fertile specimens attached to 

 Cystoseira ericoides were collected at Croisic. At Seudre the plant is 

 unknown. At Vannes in 1907 when it threatened another invasion it 

 was soon stifled out of existence by a profuse development of Entero- 

 morpha clathrata 30 cm. long, covering oysters and substratum, so that 

 in the spring of 1908 not a Colpomenia could be found. 



* Dep. de 1' Agriculture, Batavia (1908) 230 pp., 16 pis. See also this Journal, 

 1908, p. 739. t Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., xxxiii. (1908) pp. 603-28 (3 pis.). 



X Naturalist, No. 621 (1908) pp. 383-4. 



§ Bull. Jard. Imper. Bot. St. Petersbourg, viii. (1908) pp. 159-64 (figs.). 

 |i C.R. Hebdorn. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxv. (1908) pp. 751-3. 



