400 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



North American Mosses.* — R. S. Williams describes and figures 

 Funaria rubiginosa^ a new moss from Montana ; and figures the struc- 

 ture of Brachymenium macrocarpwn Card, from Florida. This latter 

 and Leptotheca Wright ii Sulliv. from Cuba, which also is a Brachymenimn, 

 are the only members of the genus found in North America. 



Tasmanian Bryophyta.t^L. Rodway publishes the second instal- 

 ment of his descriptive work on the Bryophyta of Tasmania, founded on 

 the herbarium of W. A. Weymouth, which contains some 150 new 

 species determined by European specialists. Rodway is publishing new 

 diagnoses of the families, genera, and species, with keys. The present 

 part contains the Dicranace^e, Grrimmiacea3, Leucobryacese, Mniaceae, 

 Fissidentaceae. 



Thallophyta. 



Algae. 

 (By Mrs. E. S. Gepp.) 



Flagellatse and Primitive Algae. J — F. Cavers, continuing his 

 survey of recent work on Flagellat^e and Primitive Algee, finishes his 

 Chapter 5 on Yolvocales by discussing the fourth order, Chlamydo- 

 monadacese, first the unicellular, and then the coenobial forms, which 

 fall into a remarkable ascending series, including Gonium^ Pandorina, 

 Eudorina, Pleodorina^ and culminating in Volvox. The inter-relation- 

 ships of the Yolvocales are displayed in a table. 



6. Chrysomonads. Much research in these has been done by 

 Pascher and others, and a resume of this is given so far as it bears on 

 the phylogeny of the alg^. In Pascher's suggested classification the 

 Cryptomonads are merged in the Chrysomonadineas, which are divided 

 into four orders — Chromulinales, Isochrysidales, Ochromonadales, Phseo- 

 chrysidales (including Cryptomonadine^e). In each order various 

 parallel developments may be traced, such as the formation of motile 

 colonies, and of mucilaginous non-motile colonies, also a variety of 

 structural modifications. In the Chromulinales are the following uni- 

 flagellate families — Chrysapsidace^e, Chromulinacese, Mallomonadace^, 

 and the epiphytic Cyrtophoraceas. In Isochrysidales (with two equal 

 flagella) are some six genera, free- living or colonial. The Ochromonad- 

 ales are a smaller order, and have two unequal flagella. The structural 

 characteristics of the various genera in these three orders are discussed. 

 Their flagella are terminal. The fourth order is comprised in the 

 following chapter. 



7. Cryptomonads and their relationships. While the above three 

 orders of Chrysomonadineae have never given rise to anything higher 

 than a Flagellate, the Cryptomonads or Phagochrysidales point the way 

 to the Phaeophyceae or Brown Algse. They are distinguished by the 

 lateral insertion of the two flagella, but have probably been derived 

 from the simpler Chrysomonads. The primitive form of Cryptomonad — 



* Bryologist, xvi. (1913) pp. 36-9 (1 pi.). 



t Papers and Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania for 1912 (1913) pp. 87-138. 



X New Phytologist, xii. (1913) pp. 107-23 (4 pis.). 



