784 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



of which he has studied fertile material. The original material collected 

 si. Tile by J. Bisset, was referred to Blepharozia by Mitten in 1891. It 

 is distinguished from Mastigophora and PtiluMum by the lack of a 

 perianth, from Lepidolsena by the form of the calyptra, aniphigastria, 

 and undertones of the leaves, and from Trichocolea by the presence of 

 rootlets, and by the form of the leaves and aniphigastria. 



Mosses of New Caledonia.* — V. F. Brotherns publishes a third 

 contribution to the moss-flora of Xew Caledonia, including descriptions 

 of fifty-one new species. 



Antarctic Mosses.f — J. Cardot gives a preliminary account of the 

 mosses collected by M. Gain in the Antarctic during the French second 

 Charcot Expedition. It is the richest bryological collection yet made in 

 the Antarctic region proper, and comprises 34 species. It adds 3 genera 

 (Pottia, Rhacomitriiun, and Philonotis), 11 species (7 new to science) 

 and 2 varieties (1 new) to the Antarctic flora, which now possesses 58 

 moss-species, divided among 24 genera and 13 families. The Antarctic 

 flora is a poor one as compared with the Arctic, because the climatic 

 conditions are so unfavourable to all vegetation. Nothing is known to 

 occur south of 60° S. lat., whereas Peary collected 57 species between 

 81° and 82° in the Arctic regions. The present French Antarctic col- 

 lection came from fourteen localities extending from the South Shetlands 

 to Marguerite Bay, south of Loubet Land. Short descriptions of the 

 7 new species are appended to the list. 



Thallophyta. 



Algae. 



(By Mrs. E. S. Gepp.) 



Physiology of Diatoms. J — T. Meinhold discusses the physiology of 

 the Diatoms, and especially their cultivation in coloured light. He 

 finds that there are for Diatoms two maxima of assimilation, just as 

 there are for green algas ; and the first maximum lies in the red light of 

 the spectrum, and the second lies in the blue-green for Diatoms, and in 

 the blue for green algas. The heights of the assimilation in the red 

 and blue light the author is unable to compare. In the blue-violet 

 region of the spectrum, with a given supply of energy, both these groups 

 of alga? exhibit a sinking of the assimilation curve from the maximum 

 out towards the violet end. In addition to the strength of the incident 

 light-rays, the wave-length of the rays has a determining influence on 

 the amount of assimilation. 



Phycoerythrin and Phycocyanin. § — H. Kylin gives a detailed 



account of the phycoerythrin and phycocyanin found in Geramium 



rubrum. The names of these pigments w r ere proposed by Kutzing in 



1843, and the pigments have been studied by many authors. Kylin 



* Oefv. Finsk. Vet. Soc. Poerh., liii. (1910) 42 pp. 

 t Comptes Rendus, cliii. (1911) pp. 599-603. 

 t Cohn's Beitrage z. Biol. Pflanz., x. (1911) pp. 353-78 (1 pi.). 

 § Hoppe-Seyler's Zeitschr. f. Physiol. Chemie, lxis. (1910) pp. 169-239 (1 pi. 

 and 2 charts). See also IStuov. Notar., xxii. (1910) pp. 97-9. 



