544 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



stage," and the enveloping membrane of the nucleolus, the inner 

 surface of which is closely applied to the uniting threads. 



7. This combining tube constitutes the lining of an internal 

 cavity of the mother-cell, which is relatively very large at a certain 

 stage of the division, and which is closed outwardly by the rudiments 

 of the daughter-nuclei. The further behaviour of this tube corre- 

 sponds to that of the uniting threads in the species described by 

 Strasburger. 



Batrachospermum.* — G. Arcangeli describes in detail several 

 species of Batrachospennum, among them one new one, B. Julianum, 

 found in thermal waters near Pisa. He describes the genus as pre- 

 senting, in the same species, two modes of multiplication of cells, by 

 segmentation and by gemmation. The former occurs in the terminal 

 cell of the stem and of the primary brandies, and is the mode by 

 which these organs lengthen, also in the cortical branches ; while the 

 verticillate branches are formed and lengthen by gemmation. At a 

 short distance from the terminal cell of the stem and of the primary 

 branches, the rudiments of the verticillate branches make their 

 appearance in the form of hemispherical protuberances, which separate 

 themselves from the mother-cell by means of a tangential septum. 

 B. Julianum differs from the other species in the mode of develop- 

 ment of the female organ, presenting a considerable resemblance to 

 that in Nemalion ; and the author considers that it establishes an 

 intimate relation between the mode of fertilization in Batracho- 

 spermum and in the Florideae. Although the thermal water in which 

 B. Julianum grows, produces also a species of Chantransia, he was 

 unable to detect any genetic connection between these genera, as 

 stated by Sirodot. 



New Beggiatoa. j — A. Engler has observed the barren salt ground 

 in the neighbourhood of the harbour at Kiel to be densely covered 

 with the dusky white filaments of several species of Beggiatoa, 

 especially B. alba Vauch. var. marina Cohn (.B. CErstedii Eabenh.). 

 Attached to the legs of crabs in the deep water of the same harbour 

 he finds a new species, not corresponding completely to any hitherto 

 described, which he calls Beggiatoa multiseptata. Associated with it 

 is another form, resembling Cladothrix, but not belonging to the 

 Schizomycetes, which Engler regards as the type of a new genus, and 

 names Cladomyces Moebiusii. It must be placed near Stigeoclonium. 



Vampyrella.j: — J. Klein attempts to answer the question whether 

 this organism is animal or vegetable, and has for this purpose 

 examined four species, three of them new, Vampyrella variabilis, 

 inermis, and pedata. In the resting condition Vampyrella forms, 

 according to the species, stalked or sessile capsules, attached to various 

 fresh-water Algse. 



A more exact description is given of V. variabilis, which occurs in 



* Nuov. Giora. Bot. Ital., xiv. (1882) pp. 155-67 (2 pis.), 

 t SB. Bot. Ver. Prov. Brandenburg, xxiii. (1882) pp. 17-20. 

 X Bot. Ztg., xl. (1882) pp. 193-200, 209-17 (1 pi.). 



