820 On the Classification of the Linnean Orders [ August, 
tiply and propagate themselves. The same is true of the great 
family of Algz. As the air is the natural medium for scattering 
the spores of terrestrial cryptogams, so the water is for the spores 
of aquatic cryptogams. In some the spores are furnished witha 
vibratile filament, a tail-like appendage that moves them about 
like analogous organs in the flagellate Infusoria. Desmids and 
Diatoms are found in all our waters, the sport of the waves and 
currents. And as the majority of the Algz are unattached, float- 
ing plants, they will be transported wholly or in part to all parts 
of the medium they inhabit. 
(To be continued.) 
20: 
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE LINNAAN OR- 
DERS OF ORTHOPTERA AND NEUROPTERA. 
BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 
F the forthcoming third report of the U. S. Entomological 
Commission, we have endeavored to ascertain the position of 
the Orthoptera in reference to allied ametabolous insects. The 
following pages are extracted from the chapter, with some omis- 
` sions: 
We have examined the fundamental characters of the head, 
thorax and abdomen, points neglected by most systematic writers, 
not spending much time on the peripheral, 2. e., the superficial 
adaptive characters of the mouth-parts, wings and legs, which 
have been elaborated by systematic entomologists ; believing that 
by this method perhaps more thorough and better ground 
views might result. The outcome has been to lead us to separate 
the Neuroptera, as defined farther on, from the Pseudonati 
tera, and to regard these two groups, with the Orthoptera an 
Dermatoptera, as four orders of a category which may be a 
garded as a superorder, for which the name Phyloptera 1S ee 
posed, as these four orders are probably closely allied to, if n 
some cases identical with, the stem or ancestral groups ror 
which probably all the higher orders—the Hemiptera, Coleop- 
tera, Diptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera—have origini 
We will first briefly summarize the characters, as we under ” 
them, of the Phyloptera as a whole; then the distinguishing 
marks of the four orders. 
