616 SUMMARY OF CURRENT KKSEARCHES RELATING TO 



Seaweed Industries.* — H. M. Smith embodies in an interesting 

 and instructive paper an account of the methods of taking and utilising 

 seaweeds in Japan. Many different species are used for various purposes, 

 but the principal preparations are made from Gelklium corneum, 

 GJoiopellis coliformis, species of Laminariaceaa, and Porphyra laciniata. 

 The manner of preparation is described and figured, as well as the uses 

 to which the product is put when completed. The value of seaweeds 

 prepared in Japan at the present time exceeds two million dollars 

 annually. Many species are used for human food and also for fertilisa- 

 tion of the soil. The same author publishes together with this a second 

 paper on the utilisation of seaweeds in the United States. In that 

 country the seaweed industry is very small and practically restricted to 

 Massachusetts, where Ghondrus crispus is collected, prepared and sold to 

 brewers, druggists, and grocers in the United States and Canada. The 

 author points out that the seaweed industry could be made very profit- 

 able in America. 



Dictyosphaeria.f — A. Weber van Bosse describes two new species of 

 this genus, D. Versluysii and D. intermedia. The former has often been 

 erroneously confounded with D. favidosa, though C. Agardh had 

 rightly described that species as being hollow even in its youngest 

 stages. This character, the hollowness or solidity of the respective 

 species, is indeed the determining one, D. favulosa being always 

 hollow, while D. Versluysii is solid ; D. intermedia on the other hand 

 represents a species which in certain characters resembles both the above- 

 mentioned species. The author regards the genus as being composed of 

 four species only, the fourth being D. sericea. Diagnoses are given of 

 the two new species and of D. favidosa. All of these occur in the 

 collections of the ' Siboga ' from the Malay Archipelago. 



Diatoms of the Territories.^ — A.M. Edwards reports on 16 samples 

 of fossil Diatoms collected by Dr. Hayden, of the U.S. Geological Survey 

 of the Territories. Some of these samples were specially interesting, 

 since they came from what the author calls the Occidental Sea. Two 

 new species are mentioned but not described : Cyclotella gigantea, which 

 looks like a much overgrown C. Kuetzingiana, and Stephanodiscus major, 

 which may be an exaggerated form of S. Niagaras. 



Cytology of the Forms of Stigeoclonium.§ — N. Yatsu has studied 

 the differences between the palmella form and the filamentous form of 

 Stigeoclonium. The latter form has a central vacuole and has a thinner 

 wall, smaller chlorophyll granules, and smaller pyrenoids than are found 

 in the palmella stage. The plant changes from the one form to the 

 other when transferred to a suitable culture solution. The palmella 

 form occurs in dry atmospheres, and perhaps is enabled by its thicker 

 wall and larger pyrenoid to withstand desiccation. The palmella form, 

 when cultivated in a weak solution, usually produces two, four or eight 



* Bull.,Bureau Fisheries, Washington,iXxiv. (1904) pp. 133-81 (5 pis., figs, in text). 

 f Nuov. Notar, xvi. (1905) pp. 142-1. 

 X Tom. cit., pp. 81-4. § Torreya, v. (1905) pp. 100-4 (fig.). 



