ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
323 
structure of N. Curdieanum Harv. and N. Durvillei (Bory) J. Ag. 
The genus Botryoglossum is divided into five sections, and two species 
are discussed, which possibly belong to Nitophyllum . The genera 
Phitymophora and Schizoneura , each with one species, are described ; 
and in Bonnemaisoniacese, Ptilonia, with one species, is discussed. 
A. G. 
Phycological Contributions II. to VI. — William Albert 
Setchell and Nathaniel Lyon Gardner ( Univ . California Publica- 
tions, Pot., 1922, 7, 333-426, pis. 32-49). Descriptions and figures 
of new species of the following brown algae : — Myrionema , Compsonema , 
ffecatonema , Pylaiella , Streblonema , Ectocarpus. In Myrionema the 
principal characters are : (1) the monostroinatic basal disc, composed of 
crowded branched filaments radiating from a common centre ; (2) erect 
filaments arising (one each) from the basal disc cells, and either all 
fertile (with zoosporangia or gametangia) or some sterile ; (3) the loculi 
of the gametangia are uniseriate — 8 new species and 13 new forms of 
this genus are described. Compsonema differs in having pluriseriate 
loculi in its gametangia ; 15 new species and 2 forms are described. 
Hecaton&ma has a distromatic base and gametangia with pluriseriate 
loculi ; 3 new species. Pylaiella, 2 new species. Streblonema, 12 new 
species and 1 form. Ectocarpus , 14 new species and 5 forms A new 
order, Ectocarpales, is defined, and the characters by which it differs 
from Cutleriales, Sphacelariales, Laminariales, and Dictyosiphonales 
are briefly indicated. A. G. 
Efflorescences of Cystoseira. — 0. Sauvageau and G. Deniges 
(Comptes Rendus , Paris, 1921, 173, 1049-53). Results obtained by 
microchemical tests from carefully dried specimens of all the species of 
Cystoseira found on the French coast. The efflorescences of these brown 
algse are potassium chloride and mannite, varying in amount. The 
KC1 presumably comes from the cell sap, and the mannite arises from 
the transformation of hexosic polysaccharides. A. G. 
Composition of the Laminarieae. — P. Freundler, Y. Menager 
and Y. Laurent ( Comptes Rendus, Paris , 1921, 173, 1116-18). While 
investigating the occurrence of iodine in algae, these authors have 
previously shown that the amount of iodine varies with the season, the 
age of the plant, etc. They now show that the iodine is returned to 
the ocean upon the decay (partial or complete) of the various species of 
Laminaria. For example, Saccorhiza bulbosa dies down annually ; 
Laminaria Cloustoni sheds its old frond each spring ; L. saccharina and 
L. flexicaulis decay above. But further than that, the percentage of 
iodine amounts to O’ 7 in spring, 1*0 in summer, O’ 55 in autumn, in a 
given plant — which means a loss of 50 p.c. of the iodine at the end of 
summer. Similarly there is a great diminution in the stored carbo- 
hydrate reserve (laminarin) and in the brown pigment at the end of 
summer. All three are in their greatest abundance during the season 
of highest insolation. It seems fair to suppose that the iodine i3 an 
essential factor of chlorophyll-assimilation in the Laminariese ; but we 
do not yet know in what combination the iodine exists in the living 
plant. A. G. 
