1898] BOTANICAL | WORK WANTING WORKERS 35 
another class of work which badly needs careful workers. I allude 
to the life-history of Algae, both marine and fresh-water, but 
particularly the latter. We know but little of the changes that 
take place between the time that they disappear and reappear again. 
We do not even know whether some of the Algae are not merely 
stages of growth of others. ‘This is especially true of those plants 
in which only vegetative growth and reproduction are known, and in 
which sexual reproduction is unknown. Anyone who would take 
the trouble to cultivate such plants as Porphyridiwm, Chroococcus, 
Oscillaria, Tetraspora, and Schizogonium, and reveal their life-history 
throughout the year, would add very considerably to our knowledge. 
This would not be a difficult task to those residing in the country 
who could check results obtained under cultivation by observations 
made in the localities where the plants flourish. Those who reside 
near the sea might attempt to solve some of the problems that are 
still attached to some of the commonest marine Algae. A micro- 
scopical examination once a month or once a fortnight during the 
year might result in finding the cystocarps of Rhodymenia palmata, 
the unknown tetraspores of some of the species of Phyllophora, and 
Ahnfeltia plicata, of Gigartina mamillosa, or of the rarer Bonne- 
maisonia, and Sphaerococcus, also the fructification of Sphacelaria 
scoparia, which, so far as is known, has never been found in this 
country. 
The cultivation of the common Laminariae from spores might 
also throw some light on the life-history of these remarkable plants. 
A list of the species of British Marine Algae in which certain 
forms of the fructification are unknown, is given in the Annals of 
Botany, vol. v., November 1891, No. xx. 
Other branches of botanical work to which attention might be 
directed are :— 
(1) The relation of the distribution of plants to water-sheds, 
geological formations, and chemical constituents of the 
soil, drainage, land carriage, agricultural seeds, and other 
causes. 
(2) The special means by which different mosses rarely found 
in fructification are propagated and distributed. 
(3) The rate of growth of different species of lichens. 
(4) The relation of Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes, and 
other plants, to the roots of special trees or plants. 
(5) The spread of parasitic fungi, injurious to plants, from wild 
plants to cultivated species of the same genus. 
The list of the species of mosses and scale-mosses which should 
be looked for in Kent is here given. The list of the species of the 
Lichens and Fungi is not given, but only the names of the groups 
that are least represented, but plants of which are most likely to be 
