446 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



details, and in some points it will certainly not be followed by future 

 systematists ; but it is far in advance of its predecessors, and the 

 author of the present work was probably wise in following to so 

 large an extent a system that has so many recommendations. In some 

 minor points he has adopted evident imjirovements, as in the removal 

 of Volvox from the Zygosporefe to the OosporeaB, in accordance with 

 the recent observations of Cohn. He also removes Characefe from 

 Carposporeee to Oosporeas, which is perhaps better, if they are to be 

 retained among Thallophytes, But will it be possible to do this ? If 

 a single criticism is admissible, we may append one which so often 

 occui's in reading German books : — Why is there no index ? 



Anomalies in the Development of the Lowest Organisms. — Some 

 researches lately made by W. Schmankewitsch, of Odessa,* on the 

 development of fungus spores under changed external conditions, show 

 the relation of certain colourless Flaijdlata on the one hand to Fungi, 

 on the other to Ahjce. The author's observations, if confirmed, will 

 certainly tend to break down the distinction between these groups. 



1. Spores of Penicillium were sown in a drop of filtered and 

 boiled sea-water, the drop being placed on the under side of a cover 

 slip serving as the roof of a small moist chamber. The chamber was 

 exposed to sunlight, and the air in it was occasionally renewed, and 

 was kept moist. The spores swelled up in the usual way prior to 

 germination, but did not send out hyphae. Their contents became 

 sharply differentiated from the cell-wall, acquired a granular appear- 

 ance and a distinct green colour, and developed a nucleus. The 

 spores then divided like unicellular algfe, each into two daughter-cells. 



2. Spores of Aspergillus were sown in the same way, in a drop of 

 fresh water. A little distilled water was placed on the floor of the 

 chamber, in a place darkened by a diaphragm, and in it was sown other 

 spores of the fungus as generators of carbonic acid. The first drop 

 of water was exposed to light from the concave mirror of the Micro- 

 scope, and the air in the chamber was renewed weekly. After five 

 weeks such sj)ores as had not germinated, as well as the swollen cells 

 of the hyphfe which others had sent out, had altered their appear- 

 ance, their contents becoming green and granular, and sharply 

 separated from the cell-wall, and afterwards dividing into four 

 segments. The protoplasm also contained granules, which the 

 author hints may be starch granules. 



3. Some examples of a flagellate infusor (probably Biitschli's 

 Anisonema acinus) were placed in a similarly disposed drop of fresh 

 water. They soon ceased moving, and the secreted granules in 

 their protoplasm (Secretkornchen, Biitschli) began gradually to turn 

 green, and many of them to increase in size, while some slowly made 

 their way out of the body of the Anisonema. The latter, when full of 

 these green granules, closely resembled the unicellular alga Chloro- 

 coccum during its multiplication by still gonidia. In the largest 

 green granules a cell-wall could be distinguished. The author states 

 that he has observed the converse of this case, namely, the trans- 



* ' Zool. Anzciger,' ii. (1879) 91 



