830 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
remarkable appearance of spiders’ legs springing from a central body. 
The “legs ” vary in number from ten to twenty; they are from 1*5 to 
2 • 5 /i thick, and are bent to about a semicircle. They contain in them 
structures of the nature of “ grana.” They all radiate from a clear disc- 
shaped spot in the centre of the cell. A nucleus is present, not in the 
clear spot, but beneath it ; and it is of a much higher organization than 
the so-called “ nucleus ” of most Phycochromacese. It contains a 
structure resembling a nucleole. The organism is propagated by 
division of the nucleus, usually into four or eight, the chromatophores 
dividing also at the same time. From the complexity of its structure, 
the author considers that Glaucocystis must be removed from the Phy- 
cochromacea9, and be placed, together with Chroothece , Cyanoderma , 
and Phragmonema, in a special family of Glaucooystide.®, possibly allied 
to the Bangiacese. 
New Species of Phyllosiphon,* — Prof. G. v. Lagerheim describes 
the three following new species of this genus of epipliyllous algae from 
Ecuador, viz. : — P. maximus on leaves of a species of Arisarum , forming 
patches from 15-60 mm. in diameter; P. Philodendri on leaves of a 
species of Philodendron ; P. Alocasise on leaves of a species of Alocasia. 
New Freshwater Encrusting Alga.j — MM. J. Huber and F. Jadin 
make an addition to Bornet and Flahault’s list J of algae which perforate 
calcareous shells, in a new species of Hyella , H. fontana , belonging to the 
Chamaesiphonaceae, found in clear running water on calcareous stones 
and old snail-shells, and growing in association with another freshwater 
alga, probably a Chantransia, and with Plectonema terebrans. As this 
species differs from the one already described in several particulars, the 
authors propose the following amended diagnosis of the genus Hyella : — 
Thallus filamentis ramosis constitutus ; ramificatio vera ; articuli dis- 
junct^ i. e. in trichomate continuo Nostochacearum hormogonearum 
modo non catenati, inferiores breves, baud raro longitudinaliter divisi, 
superiores longiores ; heterocystae nullse : propagatio fit per cellulas 
vegetativas e divisione cellular um collateralium plus minusve provecta 
ortas, demum vagina communi liberatas, et per sporas in sporangiis 
evolutas, cytoplasmatis divisione succedanea formatas. 
Fossil Permian Algae. § — MM. C. E. Bertrand and B. Renault 
describe a structure from the bituminous Permian beds of Autun which 
they regard as the remains of an alga not higher in scale than the 
Chroococcaceee or Pleurococcaceae, and to which they give the name 
Pila bibractensis. The thallus is elliptical and multicellular, and 
probably lived in the brown waters at the moment of formation of the 
bituminous shales. 
Fungi. 
Pigments of Fungi. || — Herr G. Nadson gives an account of the 
reactions with solvents and other chemical reagents, and of the influence 
* La Nuova Notarisia, iii. (1892) pp. 120-4 (1 pi.). 
f Journ. de Bot. (Morot), vi. (1892) pp. 278-86 (1 pi.) ; and Comptes Rendus, 
cxv. (1892) pp. 262-4. X Cf. this Journal, 1890, p. 365. 
§ Comptes Rendus, cxy. (1892) pp. 298-301. 
|| Arb. St. Petersb. Naturf.-Ges. (Bot.), 1891, pp. 132-76. See Bot. Centrabl., 1. 
(1892) p. 108. 
