Varietäten, etc. — Algae. 261 



*& 



Pater, B„ Eine gelbe Varietät der Tollkirsche. (Pharmaz. 

 Post. IL. p. 857-858.) 

 Im botan. Garten der landwirtsch. Akademie in Klausen bürg 

 (Siebenbürgen) zeigten sich 1916 Exemplare der Atropa belladonna 

 auf, die lichtgrüne Stengel, lichtgelbe Blüten und hellgelbe— ocker- 

 gelbe Beeren besassen. Uebergangsformen hatten lichtgrüne und 

 dunkelbraune Stengel, die letzteren trugen normal gefärbte Blüten 

 und Eeeren. Oder manche Blüten besass eine lichtgelbe Röhre, 

 einen dunkelbraunen Saum, dann waren die Stengel bunt, die 

 Beeren aber schwarz. Die gelbe Tollkirsche enthält mehr Atropin 

 als die schwarze. Matouschek (Wien). 



Bristol, B. M., On the Life-history and Cytology of Chlo- 

 rochytriunt grande, sp. nov. (Ann. of Bot. XXXI. p. 117 — 126. 

 2 pl. and 2 text figs. London, Jan. 1917.) 



The author gives the following summary of her observations of 

 Chlorochytrium grande, a new Protococcaceous Alga. 1) In rain- water 

 rapid multiplication of the plant takes place bj' means of aplanospo- 

 res. and the cells are thin-walled. In mineral salt Solutions aplano- 

 spores are formed more rarely, and the cells become converted 

 into large zoogonidangia with very much thickened walls. In dis- 

 tilled water an enormous thickening of the walls takes place. 2) The 

 vegetative cells are spherical, subspherical, or ellipsoid,65 — 75 n in 

 diam., with a wall of fairly uniform thickness consisting of an inner 

 cellulose and an outer pectic layer. They contain a wide meshed 

 cytoplasmic reticulum, with a large central nucleus and a Single 

 massive chloroplast, which is raised into numerous rounded lobis 

 at its surface and occupies practically the whole cell except the 

 nucleus. The cells contain oil, numerous granules of starch, and a 

 variable number of pyrenoids. 3) Propagation takes place by simul- 

 taneous division of the contents of a cell into aplanospores preceded 

 by numerous successive mitotic divisions of the nucleus of the cell. 

 The chromatin of the resting-nucleus is in the form ofa karyosome. 

 4) The zoogonidangia are very large, averaging 130 ju in diam. The 

 wall bears one to two rounded external pectic projections, and one 

 to several internal cellulose projections which are frequentty large 

 and may be branched within the cytoplasm, which is correspondingly 

 distorted. Starch, oil, and pyrenoids are all present. 5) Zoogonidia- 

 formation takes place by the successive bipartition of the contents 

 of the mother-cell into numerous biciliate oval or pear-shaped bodies, 

 which escape through a vesicle in the zoogonidangium wall. They 

 develop directly into vegetative cells. 6) The alga is established as 

 an independent species on account of the very large size of the 

 zoogonidangium and the great thickness and irregularity of its 

 wall. 7) The generic names Endosphaera Klebs (1881), Scotinosphaera 

 Klebs (1881), Centrosphaera Borzi (1883), are unnecessary, since the 

 algae thus named can quite satisfactorily be included within the 

 Single genus Chlorochytrium Cohn (1874); and the genetic distinc- 

 tions put forward by Klebs and Borzi are inadequate for their 

 retention as independent genera. The new species described has 

 therefore been named Chlorochytrium grande, rather than the Cen- 

 trosphaera grandis. 8) Phyllobiuni sphagnicola is a coenocyte con- 

 taining a reticulate mass of cytoplasm in which are embedded 

 numerous small granules of chromatin, and in the meshes of which 

 there are a v^rj large number of pyrenoids. The Chlorophyll is 



