64 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



Variegated plants though not of these genera are so commonly grown 

 in our Indian gardens and are so easily propagated, that it seems worth 

 while suggesting an examination of the plants in gardens, for other instances 

 of reversal. Interesting' problems of heredity are bound up with the inheri- 

 tance of these chimaeras. P. F. F. 



Algae. 



Bristol, B. M., Miss., On a Malay form of Chlorococcum humicola 

 (Nag) Rahenbh. Jour. Linn. Soc. Bot. XLIV, No. 299, {July, 1919) 

 pp. 473—480, pi. 



A specimen of soil from Kajang, Malay States, which had been air-dried 

 and stored for two years, was put in a suitable culture-fluid, and after some 

 eight months an alga was found which soon developed quite healthily and 

 proved to be in no way different from the English Chlrococcum humicola. 



Germination was certainly slower, and the cells larger, but the author 

 points out that the size varies in the cultures a very great deal, cells being 

 measured from 20 to 80 in diameter. The formation of both zoogonidia and 

 of aplanospores was observed, and in the former an abnormal form seen where 

 owing to the liberation of the zoogonidia before the division had been complet- 

 ed, a triangular body appeared with pairs of cilia at the three corners. The 

 author explains the parmella stage which follows the formation of aplanos- 

 pores as idicating that the latter are " really reduced zoogonidia, but that the 

 surrounding nutrient conditions are such as to be able to support the develop- 

 ment of a large number of individuals in a small space, and to render their 

 wider distribution unnecessary ", a teleological explanation which seems 

 hardly sufficient to account for the palmella stage. As illustrating the extra- 

 ordinary resistance of the spores to desiccation the author gives her ex- 

 perience with samples of soil which were collected as long ago as 1846, and 

 1856 from a plot at Rothamstead. From the former she did not obtain any 

 growth, but did from the latter, which shows that the limit of retention of 

 vitality lies between 70 and 80 years. 



P. F. F. 



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