ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
217 
' Marine Alsrse of West Indies.^ — Mr. G. Murray completes his 
catalogue of 788 species of Marine Algae from the West Indies, viz. 
444 Florideae, 112 Phaeophycem, 187 Chlorophyceae, and 45 Proto- 
phyceae. With regard to their distribution, he states that the Indian 
Ocean region has, both relatively to Australia and relatively to its total 
flora, surprisingly little in common with the West Indies as regards 
species. As respects the forms which are either eonfined to or almost 
exclusively represented in the Tropics, the forms of marine Algae are, 
speaking broadly, the same in the East Indies as in the West, while the 
species are in a very high proportion different. 
Division of Micrasterias denticnlata.t — Mr. S. Helm describes the 
mode of binary subdivision of this desmid, the description differing 
from that of previous observers in the order of appearance of the 
segments. 
Sphaerocodinm.J — Under this name Dr. A. Eothpletz describes, as a 
genus of fossil siphonaceous algae, calcareous remains from the Eaibler 
strata in the Eastern Alps, hitherto known as ooliths. The genus is 
nearly allied to Codium and TJdotea, but differs from them in its mode of 
growth, and in its property of calcareous excretion. 
Polyblepharidese § — This new family of the lower Algae is defined 
by M. P. A. Dangeard as being nearly allied to the Chlamydomonadinese, 
from which they differ merely in their mode of development, multiplying 
by simple longitudinal division and encysting instead of by a sexual 
process. The fission commences in the chromatophore, and results in 
the production of two zoospores, each with four or more cilia. They 
approach the Flagellatae through Tetramitina, but differ from them in 
being true Algae ; they do not absorb solid food into the body ; and they 
possess chlorophyll, an amyliferous corpuscle, and a cellulose membrane. 
The following diagnoses are given of the three genera which make up 
the order : — 
Polyhlepharides. Body elongated, obtuse in front ; protoplasm in- 
tensely green ; membrane excessively thin, structureless, permitting of 
amoeboid movements at the moment of the germination of the cyst ; the 
nucleus anterior and nucleolated ; amyliferous corpuscle posterior ; 
starch dispersed in granules through the protoplasm ; one or two 
vacuoles at the base of the cilia ; division longitudinal and free ; cysts 
surrounded by a gelatinous mucus, giving birth, on germinating, to a 
single zoospore; cilia from six to eight in a tuft. One species, 
P. singular is Dang. 
Pyramimonas. Body with four wings or projecting sides ; protoplasm 
differentiated into ectosarc and endosarc; chlorophyll localized in the 
ectosarc (chromatophore); enveloping membrane striated; nucleus an- 
terior and nucleolated ; amyliferous corpuscle posterior ; one contractile 
vacuole; one pigment-spot; division longitudinal and free; cysts 
spherical, not enveloped in mucus ; cilia four. One species, P. tetra- 
rhynchus Schmarda. 
* Journ. of Bot., xxvii. (1889) pp. 237-42, 257-62, 298-305. 
t Journ. New York Micr. Soc., v. (1889) pp. 93-4 (1 pi.). 
i SB. Bot. Ver. Munchen, Dec. 9, 1889. See Bot. Centralbl., xli. (1890) p. 9. 
§ Comptes Rendus, cix. (1889) pp. 85-6. Cf. this Journal, 1889, p. 95. 
