300 SUMMAEY OF CUKEENT KESEAUCHES RELATING TO 



Contributions to a Knowledge of the Alg-al Flora of Litau. — 

 J. WoLOSZYNSKA {Bull. Acad. Sci. Cracovie, 01. math.-nat. ser. B, Set. 

 Nat., l'J17, 123-30 ; see also Bot. Centralhl, 1918, 138, 214). 



I. Lake SwitBZ near Nowogrodek shows a poor developmeut of 

 plankton algse. Diatoms are entirely lacking. Flagellates almost 

 entirely : Dinoflagellates are only represented by a few common species ; 

 Schizophycete are not frequent. The commonest alga? are Proto- 

 coccace^e and Desmidiacete, belonging partly to the plankton, partly 

 to the shallow shore-zone. Scenedesmvs antermatus Breb. is cha- 

 racteristic of the shallow sandy shore exposed to strong wave-action. 

 Its coenobia attach themselves to the sand grains to avoid being 

 dragged down to deeper darker levels. The new var. tetrad esmifoi'mis 

 shows the characteristic cell arrangement of Tetradesmus Sm., which 

 genus might be regarded as a sub-genus of Scenedesmus. It would 

 then include T. ivisconsiiiensis Sm., *S'. antermatus var. tetradesmiformis 

 and Victoriella ostenfeldii Wol. The following species are shown to 

 be polymorphous : — Scenedesmus costatus Schmidle, S. armatus Chod., 

 Oocystis soUtaria Wittr. with vars. asymmetrka and 2)achyderma, 

 Pediastrum horyanum, P. anyidosum var. acaneosum, P. integrum, 

 and P. tetras with var. lithuanka. Nine species of Desmids are 

 characteristic of the lake. The commonest Flagellate and Peridinian 

 are respectively Dinohryoii cylhidrkum Imh. var. palustre Lemm. and 

 Staszkella dinohryonis Wol. Cosmopolitan, mountain and northern, 

 and some endemic species are also present. 



II. Jezioro Czarne near Bereza Kartuska has a rich plankton, par- 

 ticularly Pedkistrum, Scenedesmus, Aukistrodesmus, Glowtrkhki echinulata 

 ("water-bloom"), and Lafferheimkt Ghodatl Bern., hitherto recorded 

 only from Java. For certain species of Scenedesmus a spiral curve of 

 the colonies (*S^. acuminatus), for others a wave-like one, is characteristic. 

 In many species of Pediastrum the processes curve towards each other 

 in the same way as in P. Tcawraiskyi. The sterile filaments, free of 

 heterocysts, of Aphanizomenon ftos-aqtise, resemble exactly OsciUatoria 

 ayctrdhii, and are possibly identical. E. S. G. 



Some Algae from Hot Springs in Spitzbergen. — K. M. Strj^^m 

 {Bot. Notiser, 1921, 17-21). This list of twenty-four species of Myxo- 

 phycese, Diatomacea?, Chlorophyceae, Conjugataj, and Characea3 includes 

 all the alga3 known from the hot springs in Spitzbergen. Thirteen of 

 them are new records to the country, and were collected from the hot 

 springs Troldkilderne and Jotunkilderne in the vicinity of Bock Bay. 

 The temperature of the water varies generally from 20-25° C, but rises 

 occasionally to 28 '3° C Prof. Nordstedt determined the single Ghara 

 record as a new form, Spitshergensis, of Gh. aspera. From that species 

 it differs however conspicuously, and he suggests that it may when 

 cultivated change into a more common form. E. S. Gr. 



Biological Investigations of the Thermal Water of Croatia and 

 Slavonia. — Y. Youk {Prirodoslov. istrcmvanj. Hrvatske i Slavonije. 

 Zagreb, 1919, 14, 127-42, 1 pi. ; see also Izvjesca {BuUetin) Mat.-Prir. 

 Razreda Zagreb, 1919, Sv. 11, 12, 49-56). ■ In this, the second instal- 

 ment of results, the acrothcrmal springs of Topusko and the euthermal 



