396 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Algae. 
Kirchner’s Microscopic Vegetation of Fresh Water.* * * § — The second 
edition of this work is considerably enlarged, and, to a certain extent, 
re-arranged. The Phmophyce® are now included, comprising the 
genera Lithoderma, Pleurocladia, and Phseothamnion, together with 
Hydrurus and Thorea. The object of the work is to enable the 
beginner, by means of the plates and descriptions, to identify the 
genus of any freshwater alga or fungus. 
Cultivation and Conditions of Life of Marine Algae. | — Dr. F. 
Oltmanns gives a number of details respecting the conditions of life of 
a variety of seaweeds, especially those of the Baltic, together with the 
best mode of preserving them under cultivation. While the proportion 
of mineral salts in the water, changes in its salinity, light, and tempera- 
ture, are the essential factors in the life and distribution of marine 
algae, a number of other conditions have also to be taken into account, 
especially the presence of a firm substratum to which they may become 
attached. Since the attachment is a purely mechanical one, the 
chemical composition of the substratum matters little. Sudden changes 
of temperature are especially to be avoided in their cultivation ; and cold 
weather is more favourable than warm for their transport from their 
native element. A large number of species produce their organs of 
reproduction in the very early spring. 
Reinke’s Atlas of German Sea-weeds.J — In the first and second parts 
of Heft 2 of this important work the following species are described, 
with 10 plates : — Chorda Jilum and tomentosa, Isthmoplea sphserophora, 
Stidyosiphon tortilis, and Spermafochnus paradoxus. The genus Chorda 
is made the type of a distinct group, Chorde®, allied to Scytosiphone®. 
The author agrees with Kjellman in separating Isthmoplea from Edo- 
carpus, and thinks that E. geminatus should probably be transferred to 
it. In Stidyosiphon tortilis plurilocular sporanges only were observed ; 
S. subarticulatus is entirely suppressed as a species, and even as a variety. 
The fructification of Stidyosiphon shows its near affinity to Pundaria 
and Lithosiphon, while Striaria belongs rather to the Asperococce®, and 
Coliodesme to the Dictyosiphone®. 
Freshwater Algse and Schizophycese of Bohemia.§— Prof. A. Hans- 
girg makes large additions to the alga-flora of Bohemia, both as to 
species and as to new localities for old species. Among the new species 
described is Micrococcus ( Staphylococcus ) epiphyticus, forming a muci- 
laginous coating of a grey or greyish-yellow colour on various fresh- 
water alg®. 
Gonimophyllum, a new Genus of Florideae. || — Mr. E. A. L. Batters 
describes a new British seaweed from the coast near Deal, the type of 
* ‘ Die mikrosk. Pflanzen- u. Thierwelt d. Siisswassers. Th. I. Die Pflanzen- 
welt,’ 2te Aufl., Braunschweig, 1891, xii. and 60 pp. and 5 pis. See Bot. Ztg., 1. 
(1892) p. 113. 
t Jahrb. f. Wiss. Bot. (Pringsheim), xxiii. (1891) pp. 319-440 (2 pis. and 1 fig.). 
Cf. this Journal, 1891, p. 777. 
t See Bot. Centralbl., xlix. (1892) p. 25. Cf. this Journal, 1890, p. 216. 
§ SB. K. Bobm. Gesell. Wiss., 1891, pp. 300-65. Cf. this Journal. 1888, p. 626. 
II Journ. of Bot., xxx. (1892) pp. 65-7 (1 pi.). 
