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NATURE NOTES. 
Mr. Murray divides the brown seaweeds into a number of 
orders, as to the limits of which he does not wholly agree with 
other botanists. It is a relief to find that his tendency is to 
acknowledge fewer rather than more natural orders, thereby 
simplifying the work of the student ; and it is especially welcome 
in this group, where it is too often the practice to found a new 
order on every new genus. 
Under each natural order Mr. Murray gives first an account 
of the general characters which distinguish it, and then goes on 
to describe the thallus or non-fruiting portion of various types 
of plants in the order. He then gives a detailed description of 
the methods of reproduction, and, lastly, gives the geographical 
distribution of most of the genera belonging to the order, 
especially noting the British ones. By this arrangement it is 
possible to find out at once the life-history and the range of 
almost any genus. The brown seaweeds are followed by the 
green, on some orders of which Mr. Murray is a special 
authority, namely, those dealing with the multinucleate forms. 
In one tropical genus, Caulerpa, in which the plants are composed 
of one single cell, it is interesting to notice the many various 
forms which the species take. Some of them resemble mosses. 
CERATIUM TRIPUS. 
