212 



recognise the extreme utility which an intimate acquaintance 

 with the spermatangial form affords in facilitating the sys- 

 tematology of the red algae, and this according to a method 

 most nearly allied to nature. In another communication 

 (" Journ. Q.M.C.," Ser.II., Vol. v., p. 24 26, Plate III. [1892]) 

 Mr. Buff ham described and figured a new species of Chantransia 

 epiphytic on Cladophora — Chantransia trifila, which , he says, must 

 be the smallest Floridean known, its height being only 27-30 /x. 

 In the same number of the Journal our learned friend, who had 

 already in 1885 studied the conjugation of Bhabdonema arcuatum 

 ("Journ. Q.M.C.," Ser. II., Yol. ii., p. 131), described the 

 phenomena of reproduction in another marine diatom, Orthoneis 

 binotata, Grun., which, in its mode of multiplication, conforms to 

 Smith's first type, in which " we have two parent f rustles and 

 two sporangia (i.e., sporangial frustles) as the result of their 

 conjugation" (" Brit. Diat.," II., p. xii.). Whatever doubts may 

 still be entertained, in spito of the labours of Pfitzer, Petit, 

 Schmitz,* Castracane, Schuett, and others as to the physiology 

 of reproduction in the Diatomaceae, we are persuaded that 

 these contributions on the subject by our late frieL& are of 

 remarkable interest. Mr. Buffham has also given proofs 

 of his activity as a conscientious observer of the brown 

 sea-weeds. Here again it is to the reproductive organs 

 that he has for the most part directed his investigations, 

 giving us several notes on the plurilocular zoosporangia of 

 Asperococcus ballostis, Lamour, and of a plant which he attributed 

 to Myriotrichia clavoeformis, Harv. (" Jour, of Botany," Nov., 

 1891, plate 314), but which Mr. Batters has recently found 

 advisable to distinguish from the genuine species of Harvey. 

 Our late colleague discovered a new species of Ectocarpus 

 (Algol. Notes, " Grevillea," March, 1893), which has now been 

 placed in the e^enus Giffordia, erected by Mr. Batters, as 

 Giffordia padince ; he has likewise given some details on the 

 plurilocular sporangia of Chorda filum. Amongst the Chloro- 

 phyceae he studied the conjugation of the zoogametes in Clado- 

 phora lanosa, Ktz., and the formation of the spermatia in 

 Prasiola stipitata, Suhr., a most interesting observation, which 

 has been brought into prominence by F. Schmitz (" Nuova 



* Cf. G. B. De-Ton ; , " Alia meinoria di Federico Schmitz, Cenui bio- 

 grafici.'' " Nuova Notarisia," vi., 1895, p. 62-3- 



