ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC, 083 



large number of them figured. Seven new species are described, and 

 one new genus, viz. : — 



Ancyropliorus. Sj^orocysts stalked ; the stalk is prolonged into 

 a columel which reaches to the apex of the sporocyst, and there 

 broadens into a circular disc coalescent with the peridium, the capilli- 

 tium-threads proceeding from the under side of this disc, and from the 

 upper half of the true columel ; these threads branch dichotomously 

 towards the apex ; the outermost bend outwards, and are covered with 

 numerous subulate points. 



New Myxomycetes.* — Herr M. Eaciborski describes the followiu':^ 

 new species of Myxomycetes from the neighbourhood of Cracow, Poland : 

 — Lamprodernia Staszycn, L. tatricum, Chondrioderma exiguum, Hetero- 

 dictyon Bienioszii, Arcyrella cornuvioides, Perichsena Krwpii. 



Protophyta. 

 o. Schizophyceae. 

 Cyclophora.f — This genus of diatoms (Tabellarieae), formed by 

 Count Abbe F. Castracaiie in 1872, he now proj)oses to sink altogether in 

 Diatoma, regarding his C. tenuis simply as a variety of D. hyalinum. 

 The character on which he relied for the formation of the genus, the 

 peculiar small circle on each valve, he now finds to have not even a 

 specific value, since it has been observed by himself or others on several 

 species of Cocconeis, as well as in Amphora and Navicula. 



Diatoms of African Tripoli.^ — Count Abbe F. Castracane describes 

 the constitution of a trij)oli from the elevated valley of Dopi, in North 

 Africa. He finds twenty-four sjDecies of diatoms, all referable to existing 

 types, except one new one, Cymbella Assahensis. Among them is the 

 very rare Epiihemia clavata, which has been found also in Lake Nyanza. 



j3. Schizomycetes. 



Number of Bacteria in the Contents of the Gastro-enteric Tube of 

 some Animals.§ — Prof, de Giaxa finds that in eight out of ten herbivorous 

 animals there is an increase, which is generally considerable, in the 

 number of bacterian colonies which are developed in a decigramme of 

 the contents of the small intestine, compared with the nmnber found in 

 an equal part of the contents of the stomach. In the large intestine 

 there is always a very considerable increase in the number of micro- 

 organisms as compared with the stomach, and generally an increase as 

 compared with the small intestine. 



Among ten omnivorous and carnivorous animals, only one was found 

 to exhibit a slight increase in the small intestine as comj)ared with the 

 stomach ; in the other there was always a diminution, and that was 

 generally considerable. In these therefore, in opjjosition to the herbivora, 

 the small intestine is not a mediimi which is very favourable for the 

 reproduction of bacteria. In all cases the greatest reproduction of 

 microbes is effected in the large intestine, as may be proved by the 

 quantities found in the rectum. 



• Hedwigia, xxviii. (1889) pp. 115-24. 



t Atti Accad. Pontif. Nuovi Lincei, xlii. (1889) 9 pp. 



t T. c, 8 pp. 



§ Arch, Ital. Biol., xi. (1889) pp. 229-36. 



3 B 2 



