114 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Algse (Protophyta) of Hot Springs.* * * § — Sig. S. Spallicci lias investi- 
gated the algal organisms found in all the hot springs in a certain district 
in Italy, and states that he finds in none of them any species peculiar to 
them, all the organisms found in them being derived either from the 
soil or from the air. The following are among the more abundant 
species found : — Spirulina Icibyrinthiformis , tenuissima, and subtilissirna, 
JDetoniella lutea, Oscillatoria tenuis, Libellus aponinus, Denticulci thermalis, 
Cliroococcus membraninus, Hapcilosiphon laminosus, Nitzschia thermalis , 
Anabsena rudis sp. n., and Micrococcus thermalis sp. n. 
Cohniella, a new Genus of Diatoms, f — In a freshwater ditch at 
Breslau, Herr B. Schroder finds species of Attlieya and Bhizosolenia, 
hitherto supposed to be almost exclusively marine genera of diatoms ; 
also Cohniella staurogeniseformis g. et sp. n., with the following diagnosis 
of the genus : — Cellulm 5-6 /x latae, in coenobium instar Staurogenise 
consociatae ; coenobium planum, solidum, semper a 4 cellulis constitu- 
tum, quarum margo spinis minutis praeditus est ; divisio asexualis in 
duas spatii directiones. 
Diatom causing Foulness of Water 4 — Dr. A. W. Edwards records 
the occurrence, in a reservoir of drinking water at Brooklyn, N.Y., of 
enormous quantities of a diatom which he names Asterionella flavor sp. n., 
causing foulness of the water, giving off a foetid odour, and rendering it 
unfit for drinking purposes. The only effective remedy appears to be 
the complete exclusion of light. 
Cyanothrix, a new Genus of Cyanophyce9S.§ — Under the name 
Cyanothrix vaginaia g. et sp. n., Herr W. Schmidle describes an organism 
from a hot spring in New Zealand. The genus differs from its nearest 
allies, Hapalosiphon and Mastigocladus, in the following points : — The 
complete absence of heterocysts ; the segmentation and swelling of the 
sheaths in the Anabsena condition of the cells ; and their separation from 
the filament, when they may possibly be regarded as resting spores or 
conditions of propagation. It is probably allied to Boze’s Clonothrix. |] 
0. Schizomycetes. 
Biology of Bacteria.^ — Dr. G. Schlater, starting from the assump- 
tion that there are in nature independent organisms, devoid of any 
demonstrable morphological differentiation, of homogeneous organisation 
so to speak, asserts that the large group of Bacteria is arbitrary and 
artificial from a systematic standpoint, and according to his view the 
Bacteria should be split up into independent groups with appropriate 
subdivisions. Following R. Altmann, he would recognise three great 
groups, (1) Autoblasts, (2) Monera, (3) Metamonera, according to the 
demonstrable amount of organisation and of differentiation of parts. 
Instead of the present arrangement by which the living world is 
divided into Puotozoa or unicellular organisms, and Metazoa, or multi- 
* Riv. d’ Igiene e di Medic. Pratica, x. (1897). See La Nuova Notarisia, 1897, 
p. 141. f Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., xv. (1897) pp. 367-73 (1 pi.). 
X Amer. Mon. Micr. Journ., xviii. (1897) pp. 317-23 (1 fig.). 
§ Algologisclie Notizen, 1897. See La Nuova Notarisia, 1897, p. 145. 
|| Cf. this Journal, 1897, p. 63. 
1 Biol. Centralbl., xvii. (1897) pp. 833-46 (5 figs.). 
