204 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the nucleus, chromatophore, and pyrenoid are identical with those of 
Porphyra. The author concludes that Bangiales, including Prasiola , 
have descended from species of Cyanophyceae, and Florideae from 
Bangiales. Cyanophyceae and Floridese are in short connected by 
Bangiales, the Protoflorideas of Borgesen. The prevailing characters in 
this line are a total absence of the ciliary movement of the cell, and the 
presence of phycocyanin or phycoerythrin, or both. E. S. G-. 
Somatic Organization of the Phaeophycese. — A. H. Church 
( Oxford University Press, Botanical Memoirs, No. 10, 1920, 110 pp.). 
An account of the vegetative structure of the brown seaweeds, divided 
into thirty chapters under the following headings : — Working hypotheses ; 
Origin from pelagic Phytoplankton ; The beginning of the benthic 
soma ; Regression and reproduction ; Apical growth and ramification ; 
Mechanical support ; Ectocarpoid Benthon ; The consolidated filamen- 
tous soma or “ Cable ’’-type ; The multiseptate “ Cable ’’-type ; Corticated 
types ; The parenchymatous type ; Improved parenchymatous types ; 
The evolution of growing-points ; Evolution of systems of ramification ; 
Symmetry ; Evolution of Fibonacci phyllotaxis ; Differentiation of 
Space-form, and the theory of members ; Evolution of the leaf -member ; 
The branch as hapteron (Crampons) ; Pneumatocysts and pneuma- 
tophores ; The evolution of gametophores (Receptacles) ; The elabora- 
tion of differentiated shoot-systems ; Theory of tissue-differentiation ; 
Mechanism of tissue-differentiation; Mucilage-hairs and ducts; The 
pulvinate thallus ; The disc type : The palmelloid type ; Epiphytes, 
parasites, endophytes ; Summary and conclusion. The Phaeophycese 
are an ancient group of plants remarkable for the almost complete range 
of forms from unicellular plankton up to massive growths such as 
Macrocystis. They are of the highest importance as indicating the 
manifold equipment which must have been acquired by the ancestral 
Chlorophyceae, some of which migrated from the ocean and established 
themselves on the dry land, to become eventually our modern Land 
Flora. A. G. 
Key to the Phaeophyceae of Puget Sound. — Walter C. Muenscher 
{Puget Sound Marine Station Publications, 1916, I., 249-84, 49 figs.). 
An artificial key to the genera, with keys to species, and short 
descriptions of the genera and species, also habitat notes, and sketches 
of many of the plants. The characters used are as far as possible 
field-characters, thus rendering the keys the more useful to collectors. 
A. G. 
Some Points in the Structure of Alaria fistulosa. — Alice L. 
Kibbe ( Puget Sound Marine Station , Publications, 1915, I., 43-57, 
3 pis.). An investigation of the fistulose or chambered midrib of the 
frond. The chambers develop gradually from rifts in the pith, which 
originate from combined linear and lateral strain. This strain is pro- 
duced by continued transverse and radial division of the cortical cells, 
after the medullary cells have ceased dividing. A continuation of this 
severe strain breaks down the sieve-tubes. The chains of hyphal cells 
and sieve-tubes torn in the rift deteriorate into a mucilage. The walls 
