ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 169 



paper. A list of the species is then given in systematic order, -n'ith 

 critical and other notes, and descriptions of the new species and varieties. 



E. S. G. 



Contributions to our Knowledge of the Fresh-water Alg-ae of 

 Africa. I. Some Fresh-water Algse from Madagascar. — F. E. Fritsch 

 {Ann. Biol. Lac. Bnixelhs, 1914, 7, 40-59 ; see_ also Bot. Centralbl., 

 1915, 128, 600). The results of an examination of material collected 

 by P. A. Methuen in Madagascar. The greater number of species 

 belong to Desmidiacete and Diatomacete. One record is of special 

 interest, Batrachospennum huiUense Welw., as it has only hitherto been 

 recorded once. Three new species, four new varieties, and many new 

 forms are described. The additions to the flora of Madagascar number 

 twenty genera and fifty-eight species. E. S. G-. 



Marine Diatoms from the Pacific. — Iv. Eechinger (Denkschr. 

 Kgl. Ah. Wiss. Wien Math.-Nat.'Kl, 1911, 88, 1-72, 3 pL, 5 text- 

 figs. ; see also Bot. Centralhl., 1915, 128, 535). A hst of marine 

 diatoms from the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Hawaii, collected by 

 Eechinger and determined by H. and M. Peragallo. New species, 

 varieties and forms are described. E. S. G-. 



Economic Importance of Diatoms. — Albert Maxn {Annual Report 

 Smithsonian Institution for 1916, 1917, 377-86, 6 pi.). A discussion 

 of the uses of diatoms — fossil diatoms for abrasive powders ; food adul- 

 terants ; absorbents for nitroglycerine in dynamite ; packing for steam- 

 pipes, for refrigerators ; for pottery-making ; as filter-material for 

 serums ; as suggesting designs for wall-paper, jewellery, etc. It is 

 believed that diatomaceous oil is one of the sources of petroleum. The 

 presence of diatoms in oceanic currents has been used as evidence of 

 the source of such currents, e.g. a current from Behring Strait across 

 the Polar Sea to the east coast of Greenland. Diatoms are one of the 

 most important primary sources of food for oceanic animals, fish, etc. 

 Beds of fossil diatoms several hundred feet thick occur on the Pacific 

 Coast of America. The use of Pleurosigma angulatum and Amphiphura 

 pellucida as test-plates for microscope objects is dying out. A. G. 



Eutetramorus globosus : a New Genus and Species of Algae 

 belonging to the Protococcoidea (Family Ccelastridae). — L. B. Walton 

 {Ohio Journal of Science, 1918, 18, 125-7). The alga here described 

 was found in October, 1915, among the plankton of Mirror Lake, a 

 small pond in the campus of the State University at Columbus, Ohio,. 

 U.S.A. It consisted of sixteen cells, each containing a chloroplast, the 

 cells being arranged in groups of four, and embedded in an almost 

 invisible gelatinous matrix. The organism was non-motile, with no 

 trace of flagella. It occurred among Cladophora and other floating algte 

 at the margin of the lake. The species has never again been found 

 in the various samples of water taken from the lake since 1915. Of 

 the five genera of Coelastridge, three have an extremely restricted distri- 

 bution, the result possibly of their comparatively rare occurrence. The 



