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Note on Stauronels legumen, Eiir., and some Allied Forms. 



By G. C. Karop, F.R.M.S., etc. 



Plate XVIII. 



At the June meeting last year I announced that I had found 

 Stauroneis legumen, Ehr., in a gathering from the River Lea 

 given me a short time before by Mr. C. Haughton Gill, 

 F.R.M.S. When the Journal aiDpeared with this statement 

 Mr. E. Grrove asked me for specimens, which I had much 

 pleasure in sending, and after examination he wrote to say 

 that the diatom referred to was not St. legicmen, Ehr., but St. 

 Smithii, Grun., the St. linearis of W. Smith. I must, therefore, 

 apologise for the mistake, which was founded on the authority 

 of Brun., whose figure, Diat. des Alpes, Plate VIII., Fig. 26, is 

 practically identical with the form from the Lea. In the text, 

 p. 90, he gives St. linearis, W. Sm., Fleurostauron lineare, Hils., 

 St. Sviithii, Grun,, and Stauroptera legumen, Rab., as synonyms. 

 Rabenhorst likewise (Flora Eur. Algarum, p. 259) unites 

 Pleiirostaurum legumen, Ehr., with Stauroneis linearis, Sm., and 

 considers St. Smithii, Breb., as a 'forma curta' of the same. 

 On turning to Kiitzing's ' Bacillarien,' I found figures of St. 

 legumen, Plate XXIX., Fig. 11, and St. linearis, Plate XXX., 

 Fig. 26, which, with their respective descriptions, are evidently 

 copied from Ehrenberg's Verbreit. u. einfluss d. mikros. lebens 

 in S. u. N. Amerika, Berlin, 1841, with later additions 1843. 

 The figure of St. legumen in Van Heurck's Syn. d. Diat. de 

 Belg., Plate IV., Fig. 11, to which Mr. Grove referred me, is 

 totally unlike Ehrenberg's original figure, which is broad and 

 inflated, while Van Heurck's is narrower and more linear. Mr. 

 Grove tells me he has never actually seen St. legumen, from 

 which we may infer that it is an exceedingly rare form. 

 Recently it was reported from one of the Italian Alpine Lakes 

 by Signer P. Pero in La Nuova Notarisia, and I wrote to Prof. 

 De Toni to know if specimens could be obtained. He very 



