&6 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



By using an alcoholic dyeing fluid one of the steps in the 

 process of mounting an ordinary hardened section in Canada 

 balsam is avoided, and as the transference of a thin section 

 from alcohol to an aqueous dye is always more or less 

 hazardous the advantage seems to be of some moment. 



I am aware that an alcoholic solution of logwood has been 

 prepared for dyeing sections ; but this fluid requires that the 

 section should be immersed in it for a space of four or five 

 hours before a sufliciently dark colour is obtained ; whereas 

 the fluid I recommend does not take more than a few minutes 

 to stain the section darkly. 



With regard to its power of staining some structures in 

 preference to others, I think that, speaking generally, it 

 stands in this respect intermediate between logwood and 

 carmine, for while it differentiates nuclei from their cells 

 more than carmine does, it seems somewhat inferior to log- 

 wood in this respect. 



It is, however, permanent, which logwood is not, and more- 

 over its solution is not liable to decompose by keeping, and is 

 not precipitated from its alcoholic solution by oil of cloves ; 

 hence it is less necessary to rinse the dye from the prepara- 

 tion before placing it in the essential oil. The dye, more- 

 over, seems to have a special aflinity for nervous cells, and 

 on this account it will be found very useful in preparing 

 sections of the spinal cord and brain. 



The colour produced by this material is a blue grey. — 

 Herbert R. O. Sankey, Undergraduate in Medicine of the 

 London University. 



Reinsch's Contributiones ad Algologiam et Fungologiam. — 

 Those of the readers of this Journal who busy themselves 

 with, or take an interest in, the broad range of Algology 

 and Fungology will be possibly glad to have their attention 

 directed to a descriptive work of comparatively recent ap- 

 pearance and of considerable scope, under the title of ' Con- 

 tributiones ad Algologiam et Fungologiam,' by Professor 

 Paul F. Reinsch, of Erlangen, in Franconia. 



Of this work the first volume only has as yet been pub- 

 lished; it is not a monograph, but descriptions with illustra- 

 tions and explanatory details of new species of Melanophycese, 

 Khodophycese, and Chlorophyllophycese, as well as a few 

 species of Fungi ; the second forthcoming volume Avill be 

 devoted to Phycochromophycese. Of Melanophyceae 57 

 new species are described, distributed in 9 genera, of Avhich 

 5 are new; of Khodophycese 68 (with 4 new forms), dis- 

 tributed in 22 genera, of which 7 are new ; of Chlorophyllo- 

 phycese 51 new species (with 32 new forms), distributed in 



