No. 492] NOTES AND LITERATURE 



801 



It is therefore a matter of congratulation to all who are interested in 

 this inviting field tb learn that Messrs. Casli and IIoi)kinson liave 

 undertaken the preparation of a monograph of the Hliizopoda and 

 Ileliozoa of the British Isles. Penard's exhaustive treati.scs npon these 

 organisms of the Swiss lakes liave provided contineiit;il Europe with a 

 very ooni])]ete account of the^e jm)toz()ans and the present work aims 

 at a Minil.u- anaiy.i^ of tlu- Hriti>li fauna. The first volume includes 

 tlie order Amoehina and a small part on! y of the Coneluilina, proposed 

 by the author in i)lacc of il:c 'IVsTacca of M. Seliultze. In all, 17 

 geiiera aud^ 1(5 specie, are d(Ncrii.e<l. The work is illustrated widi 



provided with very complete l)ibliograpliic and synonymic references, 

 supplementing in these respects tlie more detailed and extensive works 

 of Penard. The fullness of tlie bibliographic lists is shown by the fact 

 that the references under Amoeba proteus occupy five closely set pages. 



The introductory chapter discusses briefly the structure and activities 

 of the rhizopodan cell and the structure and nu'thod of formation of 

 the test. The discussion of the distribution an.l kno-.vn habitats of 

 the various genera and of th(> l.-t mrtluMU of . nllrrtini: rhizopod/ is 

 both instructive and helpful. Wc note tl.r revival of Lcidy's genus 

 Ouramoeba founded on individuals hcariii- a p(>culiar filamentous 

 appendage. Professor W. L. Pot(\it has show n ' that these supposed 

 appendages are merely the my(;elial hy])liac of some parasitic fungus, 

 a view which Penard also subsc(iuoiitly adopted. The authors seem 

 not to have been aware of Poteat's work. 



C. A. KOFOID. 



BOTANY 



Recent Studies on Gymnosperms.— Among the numerous recent 



than usual importaufv. Tluse dca?'witl, []] the four orders and 

 include work both on living and on f..ssil fonn.. 



Thediscovcry of spcrmafo/oids in the<;vcads in I Sim, and of those of 

 Gingko at about the same time l)y thv Japancs,- l)()tanists Ikeno and 

 Hirase, and shortly after Webber's studies on Zamia, gave a great 



1 Poteat, W. L. Leidy's Genus Ouramoeba. Sciejice, N. S. vol. 8, p. 778- 

 782. 



