230 SUMiMAHY OF CUEEEXT EESEARCHES RELATING TO 



and Lapp beasts on marine algse. The conclusion is therefore that 

 L.flexicaiilis and Fucus serratus constitute an excellent food, the only 

 drawback being that it is as a rule at first difficult to digest. But in the 

 course of a week or two digestion becomes more and more complete, till 

 at last the food not only supports life, but gives strength for work, and 

 even appears to aid the assimilation of the ordinary food. E. S. G. 



British Charophyta. Vol. I. Nitellae. — J. Groves and G. R. 

 Bullock-Webster (London : Bay Society, 1920, xiv and 141 pp., 

 20 pis., figs, in text). The first volume of a monograph of the British 

 Charophyta, which will be completed in two volumes. The first 

 embraces Nitellse {NiteUa and TohjpeUa), the second will include Chara; 

 (Nitellojms, Lamprothcminkun^ and Chara). In an introduction the 

 authors discuss the rank and position of the group, its antiquity, geo- 

 graphical distribution, conditions of growth, economic uses, etc. Then 

 follo»vs a detailed and illustrated account of the structure and develop- 

 ment of the Charophyta ; a conspectus of the distinctive characteristics 

 of the oospores and membranes of the British Charophyta ; a glossary ; 

 and a table of Latin adjectival names. The rest of the book is devoted 

 to the systematic treatment, which opens with a history of the identifica- 

 tion of Charophyta in this country, reprinted from the Joiirn. of Bot., 

 1880. Keys to the five genera and thirty-two species are followed by a 

 detailed systematic account of the genera, NiteUa and Tohjpella. A 

 full list of synonymy, diagnosis, distribution, and critical remarks are 

 supplied under each species. The twenty plates exhibit germination, 

 stages of growth, decoration of membranes, and the habit and structure 

 of each species described in this volume. E. S. G. 



Preliminary Note on a Differential Staining of the Cytoplasm 

 of Characese.— R. Hitchcock {BuU. Torrey Bot. Club, 1919, 46, 

 375-9). Describes the result of staining the cells of two species of 

 NiteUa with a dilute solution of neutral red. The central cylinder 

 is seen to become a pronounced cardinal red or wine colour, bordered 

 on either side by a narrow line of green. Within the coloured cylinder, 

 or vacuole, are numerous suspended granules, etc., of undetermined 

 nature, which quickly take the stain. In the green border the chloro- 

 plasts may be seen regularly arranged along the cellulose wall, and 

 next to that layer is, all coloured, one of denser cytoplasm, carrying 

 small, nncoloured granules and some spherical plasmic bodies in suspen- 

 sion, in active cyclosis, closely following the cell-wall. Further details 

 of the cell-structure are discussed, and the manner in wliich the colour- 

 ing matter makes its way into the vacuole of the NiteUa cell. A 

 peculiar plasmic stmcture in the NiteUa cell is then described, consisting 

 of curious spherical masses of granular matter, of extreme plasticity, 

 greatly varying in size up to 0-1 mm. diam. The granules are in a 

 state of constant agitation, as though the mass were seething with life. 

 The author describes them in detail, and suggests they may be con- 

 nected with the development of chloroplasts. These were observed in 

 two species of NiteUa and one of ( 'hara. The author suggests these 

 structures may be the same as those imperfectly described by Goeppert 



