76 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
bodies which contain abundance of starch. These are apparently stored 
up for the purpose of supplying food-material for the development of 
the spores, and also probably of the opercule. In Polytrichum commune 
and Funaria hygrometrica, on the other hand, no accumulation of starch 
in the columel was observed. 
Algae. 
Ectocarpus.* — Herr P. Kuckuck gives a monograph of the species 
and sub-species of Ectocarpus growing in the Kiel-basin, including one 
new species, E. dasycarpus. Details are also given of the morphology of 
the species, especially with regard to the structure and development 
of the unilocular and plurilocular zoosporanges. Intermediate forms 
between the two occur, especially in E. penicillatus. 
Plurilocular Zoosporanges of Asperococcus and Myriotrichia.f — 
Mr. T. H. Buffham describes the hitherto unknown plurilocular sporanges 
of Asperococcus bullosus, and those of Myriotrichia clavseformis, of which 
no description had previously been published. 
Development and Classification of Green Algae. J — M. F. Gay 
treats of the development and classification of the Confervaceae, Ulo- 
trichaceae, and Pleurococcacete. He has specially studied the formation 
of the various kinds of resting-cells, whether “ hypnospores ” (aplano- 
spores of Wille) or “hypnocysts” (akinetes of Wille). 
The genera of Confervaceae examined are Cladopliora, Bhizoclonium, 
and Conferva. The thallus of Cladopliora may be divided into a rhizoid 
and a cauloid portion, on both of which hypnocysts are formed. Ehizoid 
hypnocysts occur in C. glomerata, which develope into rhizome-like 
branches or rhizoids ; cauloid hypnocysts in C. fracta var. dimorpha 
var. n. Their production is induced by unfavourable conditions of 
germination. Bhizoclonium is distinguished from Cladopliora by its 
intercalary growth ; by the formation of lateral unicellular rhizoids ; and 
by the cells being often uninucleate. Hypnocysts occur. The resting- 
spores in Conferva bornbycina are hypnocysts, not hypnospores. 
The author adopts Borzi’s division of the Ulotrichiacese into Chaeto- 
phorese and Ulotrichieae. In Stigeoclonium he describes hypnospores in 
S. variabile, hypnocysts in S. setigerum ; also hypnospores in Draparnaldia 
and Chsetophora. There are no true Palmella or Protococcus forms in 
these genera, and therefore no true polymorphism. Ulothrix parietina, 
radicans, and crenulata belong properly to Schizogonium. A new species, 
U. dissecta, is described, growing on the bark of trees. There is no 
genetic connection between Ulothrix and Pleurococcus or Stichococcus. 
In U. subtilis (3 variabilis the megazoospores escape by gelatinizing of 
the cell-wall, and not through an orifice. Both hypnospores and 
hypnocysts occur. Hormospora mutabilis is probably a Ulothrix. 
The Pleurococcaceae are characterized by being unicellular or multi- 
cellular green algae, which are not propagated by zoospores, but by cell- 
division or the separation of particular cells. M. Gay divides them into 
* Bot. Centralbl., xlviii. (1891) pp. 1-6, 33-41, 65-71, 97-104, 129-41 (6 %s.). 
t Journ. of Bot., xxix. (1891) pp. 321-3 (1 pi.). 
J 4 Rech. sur le dev. et la class, de quelques algues vertes,’ 8vo, 116 pp. and 1 5 pis., 
Paris, 1891. 
