and Laboratory Methods. 1771 



[ NEWS AND NOTES. J 



Professor Morton J. Elrod, in a paper entitled, " Limnological Investigations 

 at Flathead Lake, Montana, and Vicinity, July, 1899," describes the establish- 

 ment of the biological station of the University of Montana. Flathead Lake is 

 situated on the western side of the Mission Mountains in Montana, its northern 

 end being about sixty miles from the British possessions. It has the general 

 characters of Alpine lakes. It is about thirty miles long and probably not 

 deeper than three hundred feet in the deepest place. Life is not very abundant 

 in the lake, the record of collections made giving the names of only well known 

 Entomostraca represented by few species. At McDonald Lake and at the ponds 

 near the station, the same paucity of species was noticed. The expedition was 

 rewarded by the discovery of a new land shell, Pyramidula elrodi, Pilsbry, and 

 a new variety of Limncza e?nargifiata, Say, for which the varietal name monfa/ia 

 has been suggested. The station was equipped with a good outfit of boats and 

 collecting apparatus, and is to become an established department of the University 

 of Montana. The paper is illustrated by two maps and by seven photographs 

 of the lake and the station equipment. 



In " An Addition to the Parasites of the Human Ear," Dr. Roscoe Pound 

 describes and figures Sterigmatocystis Candida, Sacc, which was found in the ear 

 of a person afflicted with otitis. The paper is especially valuable, for the reason 

 that it gives a complete list of the fungus flora of the human ear. It appears 

 that nearly all of these parasites are Mucors or Aspergilli. 



Professor Charles E. Bessey's paper on " The Modern Conception of the 

 Structure and Classification of the Desmids " includes a revision of the tribes 

 and a rearrangement of the North American genera. The author regards the 

 desmids as being phylogentically filamentous plants and, hence, related to the 

 Zygnemaceae, a solution of the filament leading to the development of those forms 

 which are now found as single individuals. He includes the Zygnemaceae, Des- 

 midiaceae, and Bacillariaceae in the one order Conjugatae. The Desmidiaceae are 

 then subdivided into three tribes, Desmidieae (with cells in unbranched filaments), 

 Arthrodieae (with'"solitary, elongated cells, the latter slightly, if at all, constricted), 

 and Cosmariece (with cells solitary, broad, and deeply constricted). The paper 

 is illustrated by one plate. 



" The Photo-spectography of Colored Fluids " is the title of a short paper by 

 Dr. Moses C. White, which draws the attention to the fact that many fluids, both 

 colored and colorless, resemble the incandescent vapors of metals in that they, 

 too, give characteristic lines when light passed through them is transmitted 

 through the spectroscope. One plate accompanies the paper. 



Dr. Robert H. Wolcott's " Description of a New Genus of North American 

 Water Mites, with Observations on the Classification of the Group," is of interest 

 to students of these organisms, not only because it contains the description of a 



