SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



stages of development of various species of Laminariaceae on the coasts 

 of Japan. The present paper is prepared to elucidate the development 

 of Gostaria Turneri in particular, as well as of Undaria pinnatifida and 

 some species of Laminaria, comparing them with previously published 

 accounts of other genera. Three forms of Undaria pinnatifida are 

 recognized. The author gives the following summary of his work. 

 1. The earliest stage of development of the sporelings of the Lamina- 

 riaceae investigated is a confervoid body growing by a single apical cell. 

 The con I'ervi >id body becomes monostromatic in the next stage, with a 

 monosiphonous stipes. The growth of the monostromatic blade is in- 

 itiated by the two cells situated side by side at the same level beneath 

 the apical cell, the axis of the blade passing between the two cells. 2. 

 The monostromatic blade becomes distromatic at its base ; the mono- 

 siphonous stipes becomes polysiphonous at the same time. A new meri- 

 stematic tissue begins to appear at the transitional region between the 

 blade and the stipes. 3. The growth in length as well as in breadth is 

 due, at a certain period, to both the apical and the stipo-frondal growth. 

 The apical growth is gradually retarded, and finally ceases. Erosion of 

 the apex of the blade follows next. 4.. A single precortical layer of large 

 parenchymatous cells is generated at the transitional region between 

 the already existing two layers. The former soon becomes two-layered, 

 and adds to the number of its layers later on. Additions of layers of 

 cells are, as a rule, limited to, and begin at, the transitional region. 5. 

 The hyphal cells are generated as the precortical layer becomes doubled, 

 and the expansion of their distal ends into a trumpet shape takes place 

 at the intercellular spaces. 6. The rib and the meridional region are 

 formed by special thickening of the cortical layers. The dorsiventrality 

 of the lamina, if it exists, is indicated simultaneously with the formation 

 of such parts. 7. In Undaria the mucilage-glands are developed at an 

 early stage, but in Laminaria the appearance of the lacume does not 

 take place before the blade has attained to a considerable length. 8. The 

 cryptostomata in the Laminariacese are not generated from a single 

 initial cell. Each hair has its origin in an epidermal cell of equal value, 

 except that those in the middle develop earlier than the peripheral cells. 

 The paper is illustrated by three plates. 



Rhodophycese.* — N. Svedelius publishes the appendix volume 

 Khodophycese to Engler and Prantl's Die Natiirlichen Pflanzenfarnilien, 

 thus bringing that group up to the present time. It includes Bangiales 

 and Florideae. 



Gonimophyllum Buffhami.f — This alga is recorded by J. Chalon 

 from Astan and the He de Bas in the neighbourhood of Roscoff. The 

 specimens were found on Nitophyllum laceratum in Herb. Tickers. G. 

 Buffhami had previously only been recorded from Jersey and Deal. The 

 author wonders whether the alga is really so rare as has been supposed, 

 or whether it has merely escaped notice from its extreme minuteness. 



* Engler u. Prantl, Die Natiirlichen Pflanzenfam. Nachtriige z. 1 Teil, 2** Abt. 

 (1911) pp. 191-284. 



t Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg., xlvii. (1910) pp. 261-2. 



