306 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Amblystegium, and commences the large genus Hypnum. This is 
divided into 8 sections : — Myurium, Scleropodium, Panckowia, Rhyn- 
chostegiella, Rhynchostegium, Rhaphidostegium, Brachythecium, and 
Pleuropus. In the present part are comprised Myurium (I species), 
Scleropodium (3 species), Panckowia (13 species), Rhynchostegiella 
(4 species), and the greater part of Rhynchostegium (7 species). 
Rabenhorst’s Cryptogamic Flora of Germany (Musci).* — The two 
most recently published parts of this work, edited by Dr. K. G. Lim- 
pricht, are still engaged with the genus Hypnum. Forty-six species are 
described belonging to the sub-genera Drepanocladus (38 species in 
all), Cratoneuron (5 species), Ptilium (1 species), Ctenidium (2 species), 
and Stereodou, which includes 23 species. Then follows a diagnosis 
of the subgenus Hygrohypnum, the species belonging to which will be 
described in the succeeding number. 
Alg-ae. 
Protoplasmic Body of Florideae.j — Mr. R. W. Phillips gives the 
following description of the form of the protoplasmic body in various 
Floridem. In Geramium rubrum and other species, a strong strand of 
protoplasm runs along the axial cells from pit to pit. In this strand 
the nucleus is occasionally suspended ; more often it lies over the pit 
at the base of the strand. In Dasya coccinea the branches of limited 
growth run out into pointed uncorticated filaments, the cells of which 
are large. Across the vacuole of these cells, running from pit to pit, 
occurs a thread of protoplasm, much more delicate than the corresponding 
structure in Geramium. In Calliihamnium byssoides threads of protoplasm 
radiate from a cushion lying over the pit, and end blindly on the vacuole. 
These threads are in incessant movement, swinging over, bending on 
themselves, and extending or retracting. All these phenomena seem to 
point to the great physiological importance of the communication between 
cell and cell. 
Nuclear Division in the Tetraspore Mother-cells of Corallina.j — 
Mr. B. M. Davis has followed out this process in the case of G. officinalis 
var. mediterranea. The figures present special interest, from the peculiar 
differentiation of the kinoplasm into two bodies of remarkable form, 
which takes place in metakinesis at the two poles of the spindle. These 
bodies the author regards as centrospheres, though no granular structure 
or centrosomes could be detected. They stain somewhat more deeply 
than the surrounding cytoplasm. The ends of the spindle-fibres reach 
the centrospheres, but do not penetrate them ; their composition appears 
to be the same as that of the centrospheres. The centrospheres were not 
detected during the resting stage of the nucleus ; their first appearance 
takes place during the karyokinetic prophasis ; while the spindle-fibres 
are first apparent in the later prophases after the absorption of the 
nucleole. After metakinesis the chromosomes are drawn towards the 
poles of the spindle, and are at length crowded in close proximity to 
the centrospheres. After anaphasis they collect into a small ball, and 
* Pts. 33, 34. Cf. this Journal, 1898, p. 327. 
f Ann. of Bot., xii. (1898) p. 569. 
X Bor. Deutsch. Bot. Ges., xvi. (1898) pp. 266-72 (2 pls.\ 
