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THE STENOHALINE marine and freshwater algae in eastern North America are fairly well known, but relatively little attention has been directed to the euryhaline flora which exists in the coastal brackish-water systems. Aside from Johnson and York's (1915) detailed investigations of Great Bay, Long Island, which were directed primarily toward factors affecting intertidal zonation, the student must rely upon information contained in general treatises (e.g., Taylor, 1937; Smith, 1950) for occasional notes relative to brackish water algae upon which the present work, though preliminary, is designed to focus attention.

The feasibility of permanent benthic quadrats checked by SCUBA divers was tested. Stations were set up on the bottom of six representative aquatic habitats, both marine and inland, including oligotrophic and eutrophic ponds, river, coastal lagoon, estuary, and open marine coast. Data include physical-chemical factors, species composition, number and height of shoots, and general observations. From volume/length constants, the standing crops per quadrat were calculated. Seasonal changes in environmental factors and plant standing crop are parallel-plotted for the six habitats, thus providing comparative information on stations. Benthic diel periodicity and light intensity periodicity at various depths were investigated also. In all habitats, maximum standing crop occurred in July and August, but species composition varied considerably. Length of time the water temperature exceeded 15C did not correlate with standing crop. Dissolved oxygen was never deficient, even under ice; and diurnal changes were slight. Light was diminished under ice, but 4–60 ft-c were recorded in midwinter. Lenght of day is about 2 hours shorter at 20 ft than at 6 ft. Onset of vernal benthic growth seems correlated more closely with increase in light intensity than with temperature. The permanent quadrats monitored by divers proved feasible in all habitats tested, and directly comparable data were obtained.

As FAR AS IS KNOWN TO THE WRITERS, no previous workers have reported the occurrence of fresh water Rhodophyta from other than strictly fresh water habitats. Although neither Smith (1951, p. 621) nor Fritsch (1945, p. 466) specifically stated that Lemanea does not occur in brackish conditions, it is clearly implied by those authors, as well as by Atkinsont (1890) who monographed the United States Lemaneaceae, that "Lemanea is an alga. . . rather closely restricted to turbulent [fresh] waters, and is usually found only at rapids, falls, mill dams, and the like" (Smith, 1951, p. 622). The present work reports the finding of Lemanea fucina Bory (1808) (-Saeheria fucina (Bory) Sirodot (1889) ) in a habitat subjected to daily tidal exposures of strongly brackish waters in excess of three-fifths the salinity of sea water.

DESPITE much intensive investigation on the properties of interferon produced in chick tissue, both the molecular weight and the iso-electric point of the active molecule continue to be a source of controversy. Thus Burke1 reported a value of 63,000 for the molecular weight of interferon produced in the chorioallantoic membrane of fertile hens' eggs and suggested that the isoelectric point was between pH 4.5 and 5.0. Other investigators2–4, however, have described interferon purified from chick material as having a molecular weight ranging from 80,000 to 20–34,000. Recently, Rotem and Charlwood5 on the basis of the sedimentation rates of unrefined interferons in density gradients suggested that the molecular weight of chick interferon might be as low as 13,000–25,000. In further contrast to Burke's findings, interferon has been described by two groups of workers as being a basic protein3,6.

A study was made of Characeae of the 10 southeastern states based upon preserved and herbarium specimens assembled by R. D. Wood. The findings are compiled in a floristic report containing a key to species, notes on each species and variety a brief synonymy, list of published records, sources of illustrations and exsiccatae and remarks on the taxa. The Characeae of the Southeast comprise two genera, Chara and Nitella, and 17 species which represent a large proportion of the three genera and 22 species treated for North America. One species, Nitella capillata, is endemic. The five most commonly collected species in de- creasing order of frequency were Chara zeylanica, N. furcata, N. flexilis, C. braunii and N. acuminata. The most common upland species was C. globularis; coastal plain species were N. acuminata, N. hyalina, C. fibrosa, C. braunii and N. furcata; those most common in proximity to sea water were C. canescens, C. hornemannii, C. globularis var. aspera, C. zeylanica and N. flexilis. Species represented here, but typical of more southern regions, were C. hornemannii, N. clavata, N. translucens and N. cernua var. praelonga. The frequency of occurrence of Characeae was 5%, far lower than the 19% in Fiji and 28% in Australia. A new taxon, N. flexilis var. americana, from Florida, resembles N. flexilis but has distinct mucus. Taxa newly reported for the region are C. globularis var. virgata, var. leptosperma, N. clavata var. dilatata, and N. gracilis var. leptosoma and var. asagrayana. Braun's N. capitellata is transferred to N. gracilis var. capitellata from N. furcata, and the description is augmented from new material. Particular attention is paid to the infraspecific variation of C. zey- lanica, and a number of varieties and forms previously recorded from other areas were found to be represented in the Southeast. Mohr's (1884) unusual collections from Mobile were re-examined, and for the most part the original identifications were confirmed.

Increased general initerest in the application of hand-sorted punched cards as a research tool for the individual investigator was evideneed by the papers on this topic at the 1956 meetings of the AAAS in New York. The application of this tool to various pursuits, such as bibliography, mathematics, business, and even ecology, is becoming well recognized; but the writer was surprised to find relatively little evideniee of its use by plant taxonomists. Some, in fact, seemed to regard punched cards with a sort of antagonism. The writer, on the other hand, has found that their use accelerated handling of data and enabled him to attack problems which would have been left undone as discouragingly difficult by conveentionial methods.