Feb. 26, 1880] 



NATURE 



39i 



genus is called after Stoliczka. This memoir is accom- 

 panied by three excellent plates. 



Several other memoirs arc expected ere this work will 

 be complete. When finished, it will form a worthy 

 monument to the memory of Ferdinand Stoliczka. 



CRYPTOGAMIC FLORA OF SILESIA 



Ktypto%amen-Flora von Schhsieti. Hcrausgegeben von 

 Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Cohn. Zweiter Band, Erste 

 Haelfte : Algen. Bearbeitet von Dr. Oskar Kirchner, 

 und Zweite Haelfte: Flechten. Bearbeitet von Benhold 

 Stein. (Breslau : J. U. Kern, 1878 and 1879.) 

 '"1"'HE second volume of the " Cryptogamic Flora of 

 -i- Silesia," edited by Prof. Ferdinand Cohn, has now 

 been completed in two pans. The first is devoted to the 

 alga?, and the second to the lichens, the former having 

 been worked out by Dr. Oskar Kirchner, while the latter 

 part, on the lichens, is from the pen of Berthold Stein. 

 The alga; of Silesia are, of course, fresh-water forms, and 

 include a very fair proportion of all the species recognised 

 as natives of Germany. Thus, reckoning the German 

 alga?-flora at i,68S species, the Silesian flora contains 

 794, or 47 per cent. Some of these have not yet been 

 found out of Silesia, Kirchner giving a list of 40 species 

 not yet detected elsewhere, and of these a considerable 

 proportion are new species described for the first time in 

 the present flora. Desmidea;, Diatomaceae, and phyco- 

 chromaceou ; forms furnish no less than 600 out of the total 

 of 794 species, most of the others being Protococcoidea? and 

 Confervoidex, these numbering SS and 86 species respec- 

 tively, while the remainder is made up by 1 1 Floridea?, 

 Batrachospermum and allies, and 6 Siphonea;. The 

 work may therefore be said chiefly to describe the 

 Desmidea? and other Conjugata?, 225 in number, the 

 Bncillariacea? (Diatomaceae), 195, and the 1S5 Phycochro- 

 macea?. The hypsometrical distribution of the species 

 is carefully given, according to the plan adopted in the first 

 volume, the whole country being divided into four regions. 

 The first includes all land below the elevation of 150 

 metres, the second all elevations between 150 and 500 

 metres, the third from 500 to 1,100 metres, and the 

 fourth from 1,100 to 1,500 metres. No less than 63 

 species, or 8 per cent, of the total number are met with 

 in all the four regions, these species, however, being 

 usually forms widely distributed in Europe. To the 

 fourth or highest region there belong 16 special species 

 out of a total of 104 in the whole region. The third or 

 second highest district includes 131 species, or 16-5 per 

 cent, of the whole, and of these 20 are special. The 

 great majority of the species belong to the first and 

 second regions, a distribution very different, as we shall 

 presently see, from that of the lichens. The first or 

 lowest region contains 472 species, or 59-5 per cent. • 

 the second 612 species, or 77 per cent., while of these, 

 116 species are only found in the first, and 219 in the 

 second, region. Lastly, it is found that the two regions 

 together contain no fewer than 613 species not found at 

 all in the higher districts. 



A considerable part of the introduction is filled with a 

 history of the study of Silesian alga? and of the gradual 

 progress made by different workers in the elucidation of 

 the species and localities. Then follows a long and 



excellent account of the anatomy and reproduction of the 

 alga>, which are here defined as chlorophyll-bearing 

 cellular plants not differentiated into stem and leaves. 

 The unicellular and the multicellular thallus is then 

 described, and the various gradations noticed among the 

 unicellular forms, from the spherical Protococcus up to the 

 highly differentiated unicellular Caulerpa, the forms of the 

 multicellular thallus being treated in the same way. 

 Paragraphs are devoted to the cell, cell-wall, cell-contents, 

 and to the different colouring matters contained in the 

 cells of the different groups. The modes of reproduction, 

 non-sexual and sexual, to be observed in the alga? are fully 

 described. As might be expected in a flora, Dr. Kirchner 

 does not employ the subdivisions of the Thallophytes as 

 defined by Sachs, although he fully recognises and points 

 out the affinities exhibited by many chlorophyllaceous and 

 colourless Thallophytes. The alga?, therefore, are con- 

 sidered as a special class, and are subdivided for the 

 purposes of this flora into six orders and into sixteen 

 families. The orders are Floridea?, Confervoidea?, Si- 

 phonea?, Protococcoidea?, Zygospores, Schizosporeas. The 

 Protococcoidea? are made to include as families the 

 Volvocacere, Protococcacea?, and Palmellacea?, while the 

 Zygosporea? include the families Conjugates and Bacil- 

 lariacea?. Lastly the order Schizosporeas includes the 

 Nostocacea?, with five subdivisions, Rivulariea?, Scyto- 

 nemex, &c, and the Chroococcacea?. 



Under the different families the genera and species are 

 fully described, and apparently in a manner well calcu- 

 lated to render the work extremely useful to all botanical 

 students. 



The second half of the second volume contains the 

 Lichens, by Berthold Stein. The general treatment of 

 the subject is the same as that already mentioned in the 

 case of the alga;. The introduction, giving an historical 

 account of the progress of Silesian lichenology, the bvp- 

 sometrical distribution of the species, and then an account 

 of the anatomy and reproduction of lichens. Stein, as 

 might be expected, is an opponent of Schwendener's lichen 

 theory, and bases his objection on the ground that many 

 observations have shown that the first gonidia of the 

 lichen are developed by division or budding from certain 

 side branches of the lichen hypha?, in a manner probably 

 somewhat similar to the formation of the new cells of 

 Saccharomyces. This alleged fact, which he does not 

 support by any reference to his own observations or to 

 those of other botanists, he considers of itself renders the 

 whole of the Schwendener-Bornet theory untenable. 



The Silesian lichens include 705 species belonging to 

 158 genera. The main feature in regard to the genera 

 being the reduction of Lecidea and Lecanora, to compara- 

 tively limited dimensions by the adoption of many new 

 genera. The distribution of the Silesian lichens, according 

 to Stein, confirms the statement that lichens are the 

 "Children of the Air and of the Light," most of them 

 inhabiting the higher parts of Silesia in regions three and 

 four. Common to all the four regions are 76 species, or 

 11 per cent, of the total given by Stein of 678 species in 

 the introduction, although the description gives 705 

 consecutive numbers. The first region contains 84 

 species, of which only 8 are peculiar to it. The second 

 region contains 281 species, or about 41 per cent, of the 

 whole, 115, or 17 per cent, being limited to it. The third 



