226 SUMMAIIY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Catalogue of the Collections of Diatoms and Fungi in the 

 Pontifical Academy in Rome.— G. Antonelli (Rome : 1918, 171 pp.). 

 A catalogue of the diatoms of Count Francesco Castracane and of 

 Br. M. Lanzi preserved in the Accademia Pontificia Romana dei Nuovi 

 Lincei. It includes the entire collection of Castracane; and a large 

 part of Lanzi's collection of diatoms, together with all his microscopical 

 preparations of fungi. The arrangement of the slides and material into 

 groups was carried out by Cav. F. Gatti. The Castracane collection 

 contains 4682 preparations, each of which is here recorded, with the 

 name of the species, locality, and preparer. Preparations other than 

 •diatoms bring the Castracane total to 4738 slides. There is a catalogue 

 of 557 samples of diatomaceous earth, with localities, and a further list 

 of recent material, bringing the number of samples to 1191. Then 

 follow indices to the genera and species, to the geographical distribu- 

 tion, to the expeditions and cruises represented, etc. The Lanzi 

 collection, which is catalogued in the same way, contains 633 prepara- 

 tions of diatoms. E. S. G. 



Campylonema lahorense, a new Member of Scytonemacese. — 

 S. L. Ghose {New Phytologist, 1920, 19, 35-9, figs.). A description of 

 a blue-green alga which appears during the August rains at Lahore, and 

 forms vast strata on damp lawns, etc. The sheath of the filaments 

 embedded in the mud is inconspicuous, but is strongly developed on the 

 upward curved aerial filaments. Though previously referred to Tohj- 

 pothrix, the plant shows itself to be quite distinct from that genus by its 

 frequent intercalated heterocysts, its lack of pseudobranches, and the 

 curvature of its filaments. It falls more suitably into Campylonema, but 

 is quite distinct from the Bombay species, G. indicum, which is epiphytic 

 on hepatics. A. G. 



Some Tuscan Myxophycese. — A. Forti and M. Savelli {Bull. 

 Soc. Bot. Itah, 1917, 6 pp.). A list, with localities, of forty-seven 

 species of Tuscan Myxophycese, almost all collected from the environs of 

 Pisa, and forming a preliminary publication to a work on the fresh- 

 water algae of the district of Pisa. E. S. G. 



Myxophycese from Italian Somaliland. — A. Forti {R. 1st. Studl 

 Sup. Fireiize, 1916, p. 188). A few remarks extracted from the Report 

 by E. Chiovenda on the Botanical Collections of the Stefanini-Paoli 

 Mission. The author records Nostoc commune Yawch. Yur.flar/eUiforme 

 B. et F., of which he gives a certain amount of synonomy, from Salagle, 

 in Jubaland. A previous record is Smithfield, in the Orange River 

 Colony, and the distance between the two stations leads to tlic inference 

 that the variety is probably diffused throughout the continent. It does 

 not correspond with the more capilliform varieties of typical Nema- 

 tonostoc rhizomorphoides, but recalls well the clathrate thalli distributed 

 by Collins as No. 1901 of his " Phycotheca Boreali- Americana," which 

 demonstrate the slight systematic value of this distinction. This variety 

 is eaten in China under the name of Fahtsai. The distribution includes 

 the Pyrenees, Bohemia, Texas, Montana, Mexico, and China. E. S. G. 



