404 SYLLABUS DER PFLANZENFA:MILIEN. 



to accept the parallel drawn by Prof. Oltmanns between the 

 oogonium of ColocluEte, together with the cells immediately pro- 

 duced by it, and the spore of MarcJiantia with the thallus arising 

 therefrom. Prof. Oltmanns is apt to bring forward somewhat 

 strained instances of alternation of generation. 



A short list is next given of the shore alg^e of the Lake of 

 Geneva, with remarks on some of the genera, and a short account 

 of the escape and subsequent development of zoospores in Clado- 

 joJiora glomerata. The cultivation of this alga in nutritious solu- 

 tions is said to lead to the swelling of certain cells of the thallus, 

 which then bud off, and so closely resemble the CentrosphtEra of 

 Borzi, that Prof. Chodat considers these two forms identical. A 

 note on Batrachospemmm densiim describes its growth from the 

 creeping thallus, without the intervention of the Chantransia-\ike 

 form. The author regards the hairs of this plant as respiratory 

 organs, establishing a communication through the surrounding 

 mucus with the outer air. But in the same line he points out that 

 when cultivated in nutritive solutions, these hairs diminish or 

 disappear. Does he consider that an extra food-supply does away 

 with the necessity of breathing ? 



It is to be regretted that throughout the whole paper no 

 measurements are given, either in the text or the figures. 



Major Reinbold gives in Hedwigia, Bd. xxxvii. 1898, a short list 

 of thirty-eight marine alg^ collected by Herr Nemetz in the Island 

 of Rhodes. Two of these are new species of Siphoiiocladus, S. 

 Fikodensis and S. concrescens. The western shores of the Medi- 

 terranean have been so well examined that it is interesting to 

 have a record of algas from one of the eastern islands. The list 

 includes Hijpnea V(denticB Mont., a common form in the Indian 

 Ocean, and recorded from the West Indies by Maze and Schramm. 



Ethel S. Barton. 



Syllabus der PfianzenfamiUen. Von Dr. Adolf Engler. Zweite 

 umgearbeitete Ausgabe. Pp. xii, 214. Berlin: Borntraeger. 

 1898. Price 3 M. 80 Pf. 



As the principal editor of, and one of the chief contributors to 

 the NaturUchen PflanzenfamiUen, which after a busy ten years is now 

 all but completed. Prof. Engler speaks with authority on the 

 systematic arrangement of plants. Hence the Syllabus — presenting 

 in a concise form the recent views of the German school of syste- 

 matists which has arisen under the energetic tutelage of the Director 

 of the Berlin Gardens and Museums — will be welcomed by the 

 increasing number of botanists who are interested in the study of 

 plant relationships and distribution. It may be useful to review 

 briefly the plan of arrangement adopted. The plant-world is 

 divided into four sections (Abteilung). Section I. Myxothallo- 

 PHYTA are of course the Myxomycetes, which form a very distinct 

 group on the borderland between plants and animals. Section II. 

 EuTHALLOPHYTA includcs four subsections, of which the first, 

 Schizophyta, comprises two classes, Schkomycetes or Bacteria in 



