460 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



been much confused with the nearly allied C. hmulsefolia, and the 

 synonymy was also obscure. Telaranea Spruce, a small genus nearly 

 allied to Lepidozia and others. A synopsis of species and varieties is 

 given. The author also notes the close resemblance, which exists be- 

 tween the Californian Riccia Campbelliana and the Mediterranean JR. 

 macrocarpa, but maintains tbeir specific distinction. 



Mosses of South-western Switzerland.* — VV. E. Nicholson publishes 

 notes on the more interesting of the mosses gathered by him in July 

 1901 in the alpine zone above Zermatt, the sub-alpine zone about Gliou 

 and Diablerets, and down near the Lake of Geneva where certain 

 species of the Mediterranean type occur. In all more than 200 species 

 were gathered. The paper is in English. 



Mosses of West Tropical Africa.f — General Paris, with the co- 

 operation of some other experts, describes sixteen new species of mosses 

 from Senegal, Fouta Djallon, the Ivory Coast, and Dahomey, and adds 

 the names and localities of several other species of mosses and hepatics 

 gathered in the same territories but already described. 



Algee. 



Structure and Division of Polytoma4 — Dr. S. Prowazek dissents 

 from the view put forward by Dangeard that in Polytoma the flagellum 

 is connected by means of a fibrillar structure, the " rhizoplast," with a 

 granular structure in connection with the nucleus which he calls the 

 " condyle." On this view Dangeard draws a comparison between the 

 structure of Polytoma and that of the spermatozoid of such a form as 

 Helix. The author's view is that the "rhizoplast " stops short at some 

 distance from the apex and that the structure, of doubtful nature, which 

 has been called the " condyle " lies just inside the nuclear wall, on the 

 side which is directed away from the rhizoplast, and seems to have no 

 connection with it. He confirms Dangeard's statement that eight 

 chromosomes are present at the nuclear division of this form. 



Atlas of Diatoms. § — The latest part of this publication, for which 

 Dr. F. Fricke is responsible, contains notes and figures of various genera 

 and species, including a new species Stephanodiscus Pontocsehi. 



Growth of Cladophora cornea in the Form of Balls.|| — Leder- 

 bauer describes plants of this species, which he dredged up at Eovigno, 

 forming balls as in C. Sauteri. He attributes this occurrence to their 

 position on a gently sloping shore, on which they would be constantly 

 rolled about by waves. The centre of the ball consists of a fragment 

 of Lithothamnion or large grains of coral sand, to which the alga clings 

 by means of short branches or holdfasts. These are of three kinds : — 



(1) Outgrowths from the basal cell forming rhizoidal attachments; 



(2) holdfasts arising from the side of a cell ; and (3) those which arise 

 at the end of the branches. 



* Rev. Bryol., xxix. (1902) pp. 57-62. f T °m. °it., PP- 63-72. 



X Oeterreich. Botan. Zeitschr., li. (1901) p. 400 (2 figs.). 



§ Adolf Schmidt, Atlas der Diatomaceen-kunde, Heft 58 (ser. v. tt. 229-32) 

 Reisland, Leipzig. 



|| Verliandl. k. k. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, Hi. (1902) pp. 155-9 (4 figs.). 



