ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
203 
not a secondary differentiation within the spore-chamber. The arche- 
gone resembles more closely that of the eusporangiate ferns than does 
that of Anthoceros. The antherid arises from a hypodermal cell, a 
process which occurs nowhere else among Bryophytes. Its development, 
however, agrees altogether with that of Anthoceros. 
Fossil Liverwort.* * * § — Under the name Preissites Wardii g. et sp. n., 
Mr. F. H. Knowlton describes a fossil from the Lower Yellowstone, in 
Montana, representing a genus of Frondose Hepaticse, evidently nearly 
related both to Preissia and to Alarchantia. 
Characeae. 
New Characeae. — In the most recently published part of his 
Characeae of America,! Dr. T. F. Allen gives a monograph of the 
division Gloeocarpae of the section Mouartlirodactylae of Nitella , includ- 
ing four new species, N. obtusa , montana , BlanJrinshipii, and missouriensis. 
In another paper f he describes three other new species of Nitella 
belonging to the same section, N. mexicana , californica , and occidentalism 
and erects Braun’s species of Chara , C. gymnopus , into a section 
Gymnopod.®, including two new species, C. carmensis and cubensis , and 
establishes also another new species of this genus, C. depauperata. 
Algae. 
Anatomy of Floridese.§ — Herr E. Bruns makes the following ob- 
servations on the structure of some Mediterranean Florideae. 
In Bonnemaisonia asparagoides every branch contains a large number 
of strongly refringent particles which are an intense blue in reflected 
light. These bodies are not contained in the cells, but in the enveloping 
gelatinous layer, at the points of junction of two or three epidermal 
cells. Their chemical nature was not ascertained. Sieve-tubes and 
sieve-plates occur in both the principal and secondary branches. Similar 
refringent particles were also found in Antithamnion cruciatum and in 
other species of the genus, within the gelatinous sheath. Their function 
is obscure ; but they are not, as was supposed by Nageli, abortive 
mother-cells of tetraspores. In Vidalia volubilis there are no sieve-tubes, 
but the ordinary cells of the thallus are connected with one another by 
sieve-plates. Crystalloids were found in many species ; they were 
coloured red from rliodospermin. 
Biology of Fioride8e.||— Dr. M. Golenkin notes the remarkable fact 
that Bonnemaisonia asparagoides , in drying, excretes free iodine. The 
iodine appears to be contained in the vacuoles of special cells. 
The author further describes the germination of the carpospores in 
this species, which often commences while still in the cystocarp. When 
ripe they are tilled with Florideae-starch, which substance was found in 
great abundance in all the Floridese of the Bay of Naples, while in the 
* Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxi. (1894) pp. 458-60 (1 pi.). 
t ‘The Characeae of America,’ 1894, pt. ii. fasc. 1 (14 pis.). 
X Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxi. (1894) pp. 162-7 (2 pis.). 
§ Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xii. (1894) pp. 178-86 (1 pi.) 
|| Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, 1894, pp. 257-6S (8 figs ) (German). 
