402 BOTANY. 



Belgian Diatoms, is tlie subject of a paper by .Grnnow in the Botanisches 

 Centralblatt. The subject of Fineness of Striation as a Specific Charac- 

 ter of Diatoms is discussed in. the Am. Monthly Micros. Journal by 

 Prof. H. L. Smith, in which he takes strong ground against the views 

 of Castracane, and regrets that so many new species are founded on the 

 variable distinctions of striation. In the same journal, Dr. G. M. Stern- 

 berg states that he is able to confirm the views of Wallich, that the 

 motions of diatoms are produced by delicate filaments projecting from 

 the valves. Of Yan Heurck's Sr/nojms des Diatomces de Belgique, part 

 3, plates 31-53, iucludiug the Pseudo-EhapMdew, appeared during the 

 year, and parts 17-18 of Schmidt's Atlas der Diatomaceenkundc. The first 

 part of Habirshaw's Catalogue of the Diatojuacew also appeared this year. 



Lichens. — The first i)art of Minks' Syynholw licheno-mi/cologica^, which 

 the author stylos a contributiou to the knowledge of the boundaries 

 between lichens and fungi, appeared towards the end of 1881, and a 

 continuation is jiromised. lie gives a catalogue of a large number of 

 recognized fungi, many of which arc common species, in which he de- 

 clares that lie has fi)und microgonidia, and hence concludes that they 

 are not fuugi, but lichens. In the introduction he advances some decid- 

 edly novel views on the formation of asci and spores. In the Giornale 

 Botanico, jMattirolo gives the results of his study of the genus Cora, of 

 which be recognizes two species, making a new genus, Rhipidonema of 

 Cora ligulata. The genus Cora, which has by some been considered to 

 belong to fungi and by others to lichens, has fruit resembling the Auri- 

 cularini, but has also gonidia, and for this reason Mattirolo creates the 

 new division of lichens, which he calls Hymenoliclienes to include the two 

 genera above named. 



The descriptive notices of lichens which appeared during the year were 

 principally continuations of i)eriodical communications. In the Torrey 

 Bulletin, Willey calls attention to a new North American lichen, Ompha- 

 lodium Ilottentottum var. Arizonicnm Tuck, and he has also a note on 

 Similarity between the Lichen Flora of Africa and South America. Flora 

 contains a continuation of Nylander's Addenda nova ad Lichenographiam 

 Furopeam iiU(].Mne\\ev''s Lichcnol()gischc Beitriige,the\i\sto1iwh\chiw,\ades 

 species from nearly all parts of the world. Mueller also describes a 

 lumiber of Swiss lichens, especially from the Valais, in the Bull. Soc. 

 Murithienne du Valais. The Lichenologische Fragmente of Arnold have 

 been continued in several numbers in Flora. Contributions to British 

 lichens have been made by Crombie in Grevillea in two articles. Ob- 

 servations on Parmelia oUvacea and its British Allies, and New British 

 Lichens. In Franco the third las(!icle of Boumegu^re's Lichenes GalKci 

 exsiccati has ai)iieared, and in Italy there has been published Anacrise 

 dei licheni delta Valesia by Baglietto and Carestia, and two papers by 

 Jatta in the Giornale Botanico, on some lichens in the herbarium of De 

 Isotaris. In Flora, Fries has a note on the lichens of Ehrart. Contri- 

 butions to the lichen flora of Lapland have been made by Wainio. 



