Januabt 29, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



189 



Fisher's Nature of Capital and Income 

 and Rate of Interest), by E. B. "Wilson; 

 " Shorter Notices " : Hesse-Gundelfinger's An- 

 alytische Geometrie der geraden Linie, des 

 Punktes und des Kreises in der Ebene, by E. 

 J. Wilczynski; Gray's Bibliography of the 

 Woiks of Sir Isaac Newton and White's 

 Scrapbook of Elementary Mathematics, by D. 

 E. Smith; Eoyal Society Catalogue of Pure 

 Mathematics, by G. A. Miller; Carslaw's 

 Fourier's Series and Integrals, by J. E. 

 Wright; ' Grimsehl's Angewandte Potential- 

 theorie in elementarer Behandlung, by E. B. 

 Wilson. "Notes"; "New Publications." 



BOTANWAL NOTES 

 TWO EECENT PAPERS ON ALGAE 



E. E. Buchanan's paper — "Notes on the 

 Algae of Iowa " — in the Proceedings of the 

 Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. XIV., opens 

 with a historical account of the study of the 

 Iowa algae, in which eight previous papers 

 are noted extending over a period of twenty- 

 eight years from 1880 to the present. The 

 181 species' credited to the state are arranged 

 mainly according to the system given in 

 West's " British Freshwater Algae," and for 

 each particular localities are given with the 

 name of the collector, and often the date of 

 the collection. 



Of the Myxophyceae there are 45 species 

 enumerated, of Bacillaricae 5 ; Heterokontae 

 4; Chlorophyceae 127. No Phaeophyceae, nor 

 Bhodophyceae, are known to occur in the state. 

 This paper is to be considered as a preliminary 

 report, for when the whole of the material col- 

 lected by the author is worked over it is con- 

 fidently predicted that many more species will 

 be added to the algal flora of the state. 



Somewhat like the foregoing is Conn and 

 Webster's " Preliminary Eeport on the Algae 

 of the Fresh Waters of Connecticut," pub- 

 lished as Bulletin 10 of the State Geological 

 and Natural History Survey. The authors 

 say of it that "it is thought that it will be 

 found to contain most of the common algae 

 of the state." It, also, is based upon West's 

 system, but no attempt is made to distinguish 

 anything lower than the genera, the species 



merely being enumerated, usually without 

 localities being given. A somewhat hasty 

 count of species gives for Myxophyceae 55 

 species; Heterokontae, 3; Chlorophyceae, 223; 

 and Rhodophyceae, 10. Comparing these with 

 the Iowa algae we find that the species of 

 Oscillaioria are the same in number (9) in 

 the two lists, that Iowa has 12 species of 

 Oedogondttm, to 2 in Connecticut: so of Clado- 

 phora the corresponding numbers are 7 for 

 Iowa and 2 for Connecticut; Vaucheria, 7 and 

 3; Zygnema, 4 and 5; Spirogyra, 25 and 20. 

 In these genera the preponderance is greatly 

 in favor of Iowa, but when we take up the 

 desmids (Desmidiaceae) it is quite the oppo- 

 site, standing 26 for Iowa, to 109 for Con- 

 necticut. Forty-four well-drawn plates add 

 greatly to the usefulness of the Connecticut 

 report. 



papers on fungi 



The quite extended paper (86 pages, and 9 

 plates) by Greorge E. Lyman on " Culture 

 Studies on Polymorphism of Hymenomycetes " 

 (Proc. Boston Society of Natural History, 

 vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 124-209) records the results 

 of careful cultural studies, especially of woody 

 and encrusting species. Besides the normal 

 basidiospores formed by these fungi there are 

 four others which may be regarded as second- 

 ary, viz., (a) chlamydospores ; (h) oidia; (c) 

 budding cells; (d) conidia. The author con- 

 cludes that " a considerable majority of 

 Hymenomycetes possess no secondary spores ; 

 that oidia are common among the Agaricaceae 

 and Polyporaceae, and are confined to these 

 two families ; that chlamydospores occasionally 

 occur in connection with the basidio-fructi- 

 fication, as in Nyctalis, Ptychog aster, and 

 Fistulina, and are quite widely distributed on 

 the mycelia of all families; and that conidia 

 and other highly specialized secondary methods 

 of reproduction are rare, and occur more fre- 

 quently in the Thelephoraceae than in the 

 higher families." 



Professor Olive's paper on " Sexual Cell 

 F-usions and Vegetative Nuclear Divisions in 

 the Rusts " (Ann. Bot., Vol. XXII., pp. 331- 

 360) explains to a certain extent some of the 

 discordant results of Blackman's and Christ- 



