138 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Algae. 



Relationship of Algae to Phanerogams.* — Haeckel recently 

 proposed the following phylogenetic scheme for the vegetable 

 kingdom : — 



ProfistaB 



Alffse 



Lichens Fungi 



Vascular Cryptogams 

 Gymnosperms Angiosperms 



Mouocotyledous Dicotyledons 



Thallophyta. 



Prothalloteae. 



Anthophyta. 



Dr. O. Kuntze points out the close resemblance, in many points 

 of structure, with Algse, of a small order of flowering plants, the 

 Podostemonaceae, consisting of 23 genera and 103 species of tropical 

 water-plants, which he considers may have a very close genetic 

 affinity with Algae, similar to the suggested relationship of CytineaB 

 and Balanophoracefe with Fungi. The Podostemonaceae are often 

 very small plants, mostly grow immersed in running water, and the 

 smaller species are composed entirely of parenchymatous tissue 

 without any fibro-vascular bundles ; the stem is often entirely wanting, 

 when present, dichotomous or moss-like, or even resembling the 

 thallus of hepaticEe or lichens ; there is often no true root, and the 

 vernation is frequently circinate. These resemblances seem, how- 

 ever, nearly all to relate to those points of structure which depend on 

 habit rather than to those which would indicate the line of descent, 

 such as the structure of the reproductive organs. Dr. Kuntze docs 

 not believe in the derivation of the Gymnosperms from the Angio- 

 sperms ; but traces the former from the Oosporeaj through Vascular 

 Cryptogams, the latter directly from the Carposporeas. 



Endogenous formation of Normal Lateral Shoots in Rytiphloea, 

 Vidalia, and Amansia.f — P. Falkenberg has carefully investigated 

 this anomalous structure in the above-named three genera of Ehodo- 

 melaceae, growing in the Bay of Naples. Although the whole of the 

 vegetative branching of the thallus of these algae depends on these 

 endogenous shoots, their origin can be detected only with difficulty 

 in the mature thallus. They are not properly designated adventi- 

 tious shoots, as is shown by their strictly acropetal order of develop- 

 ment immediately beneath the growing apex of the thallus, and by 

 their regular position on the main stem. In Vidalia voluhilis the 

 formation of tetraspores is limited to the endogenous branches. In 



* 'Flora,' Ixii. (1879) pp. 401, 417. 



t 'Nachr. K. Ges. Wiss. Gottingen,' 1879, No. 11; see 'Bot. Zeit.,' xxxvii. 

 (1879) p. 601. 



