36 NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan., 



one new species to the genus, B. Flannagani, named after Mr. 

 Flannagan, by whom it was collected. 



Several lists of algae have been contributed by Mr. Paul Hariot to 

 the Journal de Botanique. Those from the Straits of Magellan (5) were 

 sent to him by the late Professor Schmitz, and had been collected by 

 Mr. Michaelsen. Among them he found one new species, which he 

 named Lithothamnion Schmitzii. From California (6) he records three 

 new species, a welcome addition to the flora from a little-known part 

 of the ocean ; and from the West Coast of Africa (4) sixteen species, 

 one of which is new, Calophyllis Lecomtei, a small plant with very 

 distinct pinnate branching. 



Two new species of Dermocarpa have been recently figured and 

 described by Mr. Sauvageau (14), D. biscayensis and D. strangidata, both 

 of which were found growing along with D. prasina on a branch of 

 Sargassum flavifolium that had been thrown up by a storm at Biarritz. 

 The Dermocarpa cells were all in a vegetative condition ; but in 

 several cases he noted a slight median constriction, that seemed to 

 indicate a division of the vegetative cell into a persistent basal portion, 

 and an upper sporangial cell. Cell-measurements served to determine 

 the new species, and such a formation would still further differentiate 

 them from D. prasina, with which they might have been confounded. 

 A revision of Dermocarpa was needed , before, and the establishment of 

 new species on such grounds points to its immediate necessity. 



A posthumous paper by the deeply-lamented Professor Schmitz, 

 of Greifswald, on the Florideae of East Africa (7) has also been issued. 

 German botanists are publishing a careful account of the whole flora 

 of their territory in East Africa, and this paper forms one of a large 

 series. Dr. Schmitz records from there six new species ; and he has 

 ma.de Gelidium variable, Grev., which occurs in Ceylon as well as on the 

 African Coast, the type of a new genus Gelidiopsis, placing it, on 

 account of its vegetative character and development of the cystocarp, 

 near Ceratodictyon. He finds the flora on this coast, as we should 

 expect, entirely tropical, resembling that of the north-west region 

 of the Indian Ocean ; it is characteristically rich in encrusted forms. 

 A large tract along the coast of Mozambique still remains unexplored ; 

 but the plants found nearer the south, in Algoa Bay and Natal, are very 

 similar to those growing further north. It is a striking fact that the 

 seaweeds from the shore west of the Cape are very different. Dr. 

 Schmitz notes this as if for the first time, and suggests the influence 

 of currents as a possible solution of the problem. Miss Barton has 

 already published a convincing explanation of the great difference in 

 the flora of these two contiguous regions. In discussing the Cape 

 flora {Journal of Botany, vol. xxxi., p. 206, July, 1893) sne says, " On 

 the east, there is a strong warm current flowing southward from the 

 Indian Ocean, bringing with it the tropical and subtropical forms to 

 Natal and even to Cape Agulhas ; while another branch of the same' 

 current flows direct from Mauritius, where the alga? are, as would be 



