1881.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



117 



species are all known here. The 

 memoir is a beautiful and a valuable 

 contribution. F. W. 



Fresh-water Alg^e. — Another 

 valuable contribution, from the pen 

 of Otto Nordstedt, of Sweden, 

 gives a descriptive list of Algae, 

 mostly desmids, discovered in the 

 examination of a collection of Utri- 

 ciilaria in the Museum of the city of 

 Leyden, Netherlands. The plants 

 were mostly gathered on the island of 

 •Java, but some also in South Africa 

 (Senegal), and others in South Amer- 

 ica (Venezuela). 



It is interesting to notice the dis- 

 tribution of so many species over 

 widely separated countries. One 

 might suppose that lands so distant, 

 and in tropical climates, would have 

 a flora perfectly distinct from that of 

 the United States. The list show^ 

 twenty-five forms, principally des- 

 mids, which have been indentified 

 here. Only seven are new ; eleven are 

 varieties or subspecies ; others have 

 been described heretofore, but not 

 usually as coming from the same 

 countries. 



The same paper describes the 

 Characese of New Zealand, among 

 them one new species. F. W. 



Dr. Ludwig Rabenhorst. — Many 

 will hear with deep regret the an- 

 nouncement of the death of Dr. 

 Rabenhorst, of Saxony, at his resi- 

 dence near Meissen, on the 24th of 

 April, after a lingering illness. 



Dr. Rabenhorst has been one of 

 the most earnest and enthusiastic 

 workers in cryptogamic botany for 

 nearly half a century. His first work 

 of importance was his " Deutschlands 

 Kryptogamen Flora," which appeared 

 in 1847. Every year or two since he 

 has made some valuable contribution 

 to the literature of algae and fungi. 

 He was perhaps best known in the 

 United States by his three volumes 

 entitled " Flora Europaea Algarum," 



and by his "Algae Exsiccatae," a peri- 

 odical issue of prepared specimens of 

 fresh-water algae. The latter "decades" 

 contained many specimens from the 

 vicinity of Bethlehem, Pa., collected 

 by the Rev. Francis Wolle, one of our 

 well-known contributors. 



The Development of the Squid. 

 — Already the Zoological Laboratory 

 of the Johns Hopkins University, 

 under the able direction of Prof. W. 

 K. Brooks, has contributed much val- 

 uable information to various depart- 

 ments of natural history. Prof. 

 Brooks has recently studied the de- 

 velopment of the squid, Loligo Pealii, 

 and his results are published in the 

 " Anniversary Memoirs of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History," illus- 

 trated by three large plates. The 

 embryological development of the 

 squid is essentially like that of Sepia 

 officinalis, as described by KoUiker, 

 and of an unknown decapod Cepha- 

 lopod, as given by Grenacher ; but 

 in minor points it is different from 

 either of them. Professor Brooks 

 has been very successful in tracing 

 the development from a very early 

 stage, soon after the blastoderm had 

 begun to form. 



The Cephalopoda are among the 

 most highly specialized of the Inver- 

 tebrata, hence, they must have passed 

 through a long and complicated phy- 

 logenetic history. Nevertheless, the 

 embryonic record, as shown by these 

 researches, has been simplified to 

 such a degree, that the ontogenetic 

 processes afford no knowledge of the 

 phylogeny of the group. They do, 

 indeed, lead us to a clearer under- 

 standing of the homology between 

 the organs of the Cephalopoda and 

 those of a typical Mollusc, but they 

 do not afford any basis for specula- 

 lation as to the origin of the former, 

 nor indicate how its peculiar special- 

 izations of structure have been 

 brought about. The course of devel- 

 opment is remarkably direct, the only 

 rudimentary organs observed are the 

 velum and the eye-stalks. Every- 



