ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, iMICROSCOPY, ETC. 743 



New Diatom.* — T. C. Palmer describes a new species of Navkula 

 which is characterized by living always (so far as is known) in small 

 groups of four. The frustules are joined girdle to girdle, so that the 

 group as a whole moves about with four parallel raphes in approximate 

 contact with the substratum, while four other parallel raphes are in 

 evidence on the top. The connexions between the frustules are formed 

 by a siliceous cementing of the edges of the valves. This peculiar habit 

 of growth seems to be persistent, since no isolated specimens were found. 

 It is much to be desired that the life-history of this diatom should be 

 studied in order to understand the process of reduplication. 



Bombay Characeae.f — V. N. Hate gives an account of two species of 

 Chara found in ponds by rice-fields at Matnnga, on Bombay Island, 

 during the rainy season. They are both monoecious. One of them is 

 gritty and brittle, and grows associated with the somewhat similar 

 aquatic plant, Hydrilla vertkillata, and with Oedogonium scutatum, and 

 is referred by Hate to Chara verticulata Roxb. The other is not gritty 

 and brittle, and is referred to G. flaccida A. Br., which is very common 

 in tanks and j heels in Bengal. 



Cryptostomata and Conceptacles of Fucus vesiculosus.J — M. 

 Xordhausen discusses the hair-structures of the cryptostomata (Faser- 

 grubchen) and conceptacles of Fucus wsiculosus. He describes the 

 development of the cryptostomata from the young stages, as well as the 

 two kinds of hairs which grow in them. The apical cells of the brown 

 hairs produce mucilage. In the conceptacles there are two kinds of 

 hairs (just as in the cryptostomata), and towards the middle the coloured 

 hairs gradually pass into paraphyses. Many stages of the gradual trans- 

 formation have been observed. This transformation is an additional 

 argument for the homology between the cryptostoma and the conceptacles, 

 but which is the older is unknown. The author endeavoured to cultivate 

 the terminal cells of the coloured filaments in the cryptostomata, thinking 

 that they might represent the asexual form of reproduction, but without 

 success. He alludes to the more primitive cryptostomata of other brown 

 alga?. 



New Batrachospermum. — IT. Kylin describes and figures a new 

 species of Batrachospermum, collected by Skottsberg in a small brook in 

 Tierra del Fuego. It forms the type of a new section of the genus to 

 which the author gives the name Skottsbergia. The species B. Skottsbergii 

 is distinguished from all other species of Batrachospermum by its cylin- 

 drical sessile trichogyne, and by the comparatively small gonimoblasts, 

 several of which may occur in each joint. The carpospores differ in 

 being elongate-pyriform. 



Parasitic Florideae.|! — H. Eddelbiittel writes on the parasitic 

 character of the so-called parasitic Floridead, especially dealing with the 

 genera ' "horeocolax Reinsch, and Harveyella Schin. & Reinke. Most 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1910, pp. 460-3 (pi.). 

 t Jouru. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc./xix. (1909) pp. 702-3. 

 J Ber. Peutsch. Bot. Gesell., xxviii. (1910) pp. 288-95 (figs.). 

 |i Svensk. Bot. Tidskr., iv. (1910) pp. 146-9 (pi.). 

 § Bot. Zett., lxviii. (1910) pp. 186-92, 226-32. 



