ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 69 



Influence of Radium on the Growth of Fungi.* — J. Dauphin 

 found that growth was retarded by Becquerel rays in cultures of Morti- 

 erella, Mucor, Piptocephalis, and Thamnkllum. Spores of Mortierella 

 would not germinate in the neighbourhood of a radium tube, but 

 germinated when radium was removed. Further, he observed that the 

 growth of hypha3 is arrested and processes are formed on the filaments ; 

 the plasma withdraws from the influence of the rays ; septation of the 

 hyphaj takes place ; and the fungus becomes encysted. On removal of 

 the rays, normal growth recommences. 



Germination of Moss-Spores and the Nutrition of their Proto- 

 nemas in Artificial Media.j — P. Becquerel has made a series of 'experi- 

 ments on the germination of the spores of Atrichum and Hypnum, and 

 the development of the protonemas in sterilised mineral solutions. The 

 spores began to germinate three months after sowing, and the results 

 show that the protonemas from the point of view of their nutrition 

 behave in the same way as the green algse cultivated in similar media 

 by M. Charpentier. Ten elements suffice for their nutrition, namely, 

 nitrogen, in a mineral form, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, magnesium, 

 carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and sometimes calcium or potassium. 

 Hypnum is distinguished from Atrichum by the fact that it can ap- 

 parently do without potassium altogether. 



■ 



General. 



Fossil Flora of the Culm Measures of Devon.J— E. A. Newell 

 Arber gives a list of determinations from the Bideford district of the 

 plant remains from the carboniferous rocks which form part of the large 

 area extending through the Western counties, and generally known as 

 the Culm Measures. The list comprises thirty species, representing the 

 groups Equisetales, Sphenophyllales, Cycadofilices, Filicales, Lycopodi- 

 ales, and Cordaitales. It includes records new to Devonshire, and also 

 the first British record of Neuropteris Schlehani, a frond of common 

 occurrence in the Coal Measures of the Continent, and a leaf new to 

 Britain which somewhat recalls Dawson's genus, 3fegaIopteris, chiefly 

 known from the Coal Measures of Canada and the United States. The 

 author also discusses the age of the beds in question. 



Patagonian Plants.§ — A. B. Rendle gives an account of a collection 

 by Hesketh Prichard, made on his expedition to the mountain forests 

 of Western Patagonia in search of the Mylodon. The plants were 

 collected at the western end of Lake Argentino, where the lake is 

 broken into numerous fiords by the forest-clad foot-hills of the Andes. 

 They represent in part a pampas flora, in part the flora of the open 

 mountain slopes, and in part the mountain forest flora. Prichard 

 was much impressed with the dense primaeval forests occupying many 

 thousands of square miles, and appearing from a distance to rim the 



* Comptes Eendus, cxxxviii. (1904) pp. 154-6. See also Ann. Mycol., ii. (1904) 

 P- 4 '2. f Op. cit., cxxxix. (1904) pp. 745-7. 



+ Proc. Roy. Soc, lxxiv. (1904) pp. 95-9. 

 § Journ. Bot., xlii. (1904) pp. 321-34, 367-78 (1 pi.). 



