ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 741 



Algae of Dutch West Indies.*— C. P. Sluiter publishes a list of algae 

 collected by J. Boeke during his inspection of the Dutch West Indian 

 fishery of Curagao. Sixty-four species are enumerated, and among them 

 are several Siphonese and Dictyotaceoa. Among the Florideae is a new 

 species, Zellera Boehi, allied to, but distinct from, Z. tawaUina Martens, 

 a Moluccan species. 



Illustrations of Japanese Algae. t — K. Okamura continues his 

 " Icones of Japanese Algaj," giving five plates in each part. The plates 

 have been drawn by the author, and afford ample illustration of the 

 species treated. Though the text is mainly in Japanese, the more im- 

 portant parts, for example the descriptions, are also printed in English. 

 Two new species are described. 



Studies of Oceanic Algae. J — A. Mazza continues his studies of 

 types of oceanic algae, and gives descriptions of species of Botryoglossum 

 and Holmesia. He then treats Delesseria on modern lines, accepting the 

 various genera propounded by J. Agardh and other authors for its sub- 

 division, and describes species of Hypoglossum, Phitymophora, Apo- 

 glossum, Delesseria (including Hydrolapathum), Pteridium, Hemineura. 



Origin of the Plant Kingdom. §— CI. T. Moore gives his reasons 

 for thinking that the evidence points clearly to Chlamydomonas as the 

 most primitive living representative of the ancestors of the plant king- 

 dom. Ten years ago Chodat derived the green algas from the simplest 

 unicellular non-motile forms then known, the Palmellaceaa, whose 

 simple life-history showed three principal stages or " conditions," from 

 which developed the three important and ruling tendencies which have 

 dominated the lower green algae. These are (1) the zoospore condition, 

 unicellular, motile ; (2) the sporangium condition, unicellular, non- 

 motile ; (3) the tetraspore condition, where the non-motile cells are 

 connected at right angles by the increasing consistence of the walls, 

 giving rise to the formation of a tissue or filament. More recently 

 Blackman expressed the view that the three tendencies had their origin, 

 not in the non-motile Palmella form, but in the motile Chlamydomonas 

 type. Moore has studied Chlamydomonas for some years. It has a non- 

 sexual reproduction by means of zoospores ; a sexual reproduction by 

 conjugation of naked motile gametes of similar size, but also in some 

 cases by conjugation of unequal motile gametes, and in one case of dis- 

 similar gametes, the larger of which comes to rest before conjugation. 

 The various species of Chlamydomonas taken collectively exhibit ten- 

 dencies towards (1) a Volvox type, (2) a Tetraspora type. (3) an 

 EndospJmra type. It is from the Tetraspora type that the higher green 

 plants have arisen, and mostly through the Palmellaceae ; the Conjugales 

 are traceable to Chlamydomonas Braunii. 



Fossil Girvanella : a plant. || — F. Chapman discusses the relation- 

 ship of the genus Girvanella, a tubular organism, the fossil remains of 



* Rec. Travaux Bot. Norland., iv. (1908) pp. 231-41 (1 pi.). 



t Tokyo : 1908, i. Nos. 7-8, pp. 147-208, plates 31-40. 



X Nuov. Notar., xxiii. Q908) pp. 109 29. 



§ Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., xlvii. (1908) pp. 91-6. 



II Australasian Assoc, for Adv. Sci., Adelaide (1907) 10 pp., 3 pis. 



