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378 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [November 



A NEW SUGGESTION as to the nature and origin of protoplasm has been 

 made by Herrera/ By triturating the acetate, carbonate, or chlorid of cal- 

 cium with glacial phosphoric acid, and then treating the resulting substance 

 with salt solutions, the author obtains a mass which behaves under the 

 microscope very much as does protoplasm. It shows amoeboid motion, a 

 vacuolar or granular structure, plasmolyzes in certain cases when treated 

 with plasmolyzing solutions, can be stained with methyl green, has its move- 

 ments accelerated by sodium chlorid, etc. Herrera ventures the tentative 

 hypothesis that "natural protoplasm is an inorganic metaphosphate impreg- 

 nated by various substances absorbed or secreted under special osmotic and 

 electric conditions," From the standpoint of such an hypothesis the theoret- 

 ical explanation of the first appearance of the living substance upon the 

 earth might not be such a difficult problem as it has heretofore seemed. 



B. E. Livingston. 



In a preliminary note Kuckuck^ describes the phenomenon of 

 zoospore production in Valonia ovalis. Parts, of the protoplasm contained 

 in the one-celled, bulbous thallus divide into zoospores, which escape through 

 several openings produced by an apparent local absorption of the cell wall. 

 After the escape of the zoospores these openings close and the remaining 

 protoplasm occupies the entire cell, which resumes its normal vegetative 

 appearance and continues the normal life processes. This is a case where 

 during a very active period the protoplasm exists perfectly free from the 

 conditions of turgor, so important at all times in most plant organisms ; during 

 the escape of the zoospores the large vacuole of the cell is in direct connec- 

 tion with the external solution through the several openings. Another curious 

 fact is that the reproductive portion of the plasma is not separated by a wall 

 from the vegetative part. In this respect Valonia differs from the other forms 

 of the Siphoneae which have been studied ; in them either the whole cell 

 takes part in zoospore production and thus ends its career (Botrydium), or 

 the portion so taking part is cut off from the rest by a wall formed previous 

 lo the actual division into zoospores (Codium, Bryopsis, Vaucheria). — B. E. 



Livingston. 



In a continuation of his studies on the lichens, Baur^ makes valuable 

 additions to our knowledge of the development of the apothecia in a number 

 of genera, and a r6sum6 is given of the evidence for the sexuality of the 

 lichens. The ascogons and trichogynes of Parmelia and Pertusaria are 

 specially described and figured. Particularly interesting are Baur's observa- 



+ 



* Herrera, A, L., Le protoplasma de metaphosphate de chaux. Mem. Rev- 

 Soc. Sci. "Antonio Alzate," Mexico 17:201-213. 1902. 



7KUCKUCK, P., Zur Fortpflanzung von Valonia Gin. Ber. Deutsch. Hot. Gesell. 

 20:355-357- 1902. 



'Baur, E., Die Anlage und Entwickelung einiger Flechtenapothccien. Flora. 

 88:319-332. //j. /^^/j. 1901, 



