740 General Notes. 
This final chapter includes the technical characters of the fami- 
lies and genera represented in America, with synoptical descriptions 
of the —_ The system adopted may be summarily shown as 
follows : 
CHARACEZ Richard. 
Family I. Nrreiu# u. Leonhardi. 
Genus 1. Nitella Ag., containing 79 species. 
Genus 2. Tolypella A. Braun, with 13 species. 
Family II. CHARÆ u. Leonhardi. 
Genus 3. Lamprothamnus A. Braun, containing a single species, 
presenting three varieties. 
Genus 4. Lychnothamnus Rupr. u. Leonhardi, with 3 species. 
Genus 5. Chara Vaill u. Tsculnedl with 62 species, besides many 
varieties, 
The order is thus shown to contain 158 species, of which 58 are 
given as North American, there being 30 species of Nie 8 of 
oly pella, and 20 of Chara so recorded.—Charles E. Bessey 
ZOOLOGY. 
Direct Nuctear Drviston in EurLores.—Dr. K. Mobius 
describes (Stzb. Gesellsch. Naturf. ie Betis, 1887) direct 
nuclear division in the fission of Euplotes harpa. The pen 
elongates transversely, becomes thinner in the middle, and at ap 
divides, the two halves remaining connected by but a thread at y 
time when the oral cilia of the second individual are formed. r 
ing with osmic acid and staining with saffranin showed that H 
chromatin was mostly arranged in thread-like rows of granules an 
that karyokinetic figures were never form 
Tue Foor IN PROSoBRANCHIATE Monzuscs.—Mr. H. tee 
Osborn (Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci, XXXVI.) gives in ep 
the results of his researches on the morphology of the foot Fs a 
Gasteropods. In Fasciolaria and Fulgur it arises as a paired bas 
an elevation of the ectoderm behind the velum and the blast 5 
These later coalesce. The conclusions are that this a 
Se be iad as ontogenetically, Ren possibly, phylogenetica ay 
belonging to the series of paired locomotor organs, like 
‘annelids and arthropods. To this view, Tarva, the "author poin 
out certain difficulties. 
