^^ ■ ^ 



■t 



THE GENUS CHLOROCnYTRIUM, 



'9 



De Toni (1889)* adds that tlio resting-cells may be globose or ellipsoid^ 



with a wall which is stratified and thick, and bore and there especially 

 thickened ; while Wille (1897)t describes the chroniatophore as a thin 

 parietal biyer with radially disposed rods. 



Except that this species was recorded by Spencer Moore (188J:)t,no other 

 information has been obtained up to the ])resent, Recently, how^ever^ a 

 considerable amount of an alo'a has been obtained fron^ cultures o£ two 

 soils, which can be no other llian the si)ecie3 under consideration. The 

 samples of soil were both taken in October 1915 from old gardens, one in 

 StafFordshire and one in Wiltshire, and after being air-dried for nearly six 

 weekSj small (quantities of the soils were examined by means of water- 

 cultures for any alg?e they might contain. The cnlture-fnedia used were 

 rain-water and mineral-salt solutions of different strengths. Foreiirn 



infection of the cultures was carefully avoided by a complete sterilization of 

 all materials and vessels used, so that it could s?afely be said that any algie 



appearing m 



the cultures could have originated only from resting forms 

 present in the soil. The appearance of cells of Cldoroclujlrium paradoxum in 

 these cultures is all the more remarkable in consideration of the endophytic 



and frequently aquatic habic usually so characteristic in this group of alg?e. 



The material haSj however, been kept under observation for a period of 

 nearly two years, and no other conclusion is possible than that this identifi- 

 cation is the correct one. Owing to the preliminary drying of the soils, 

 the cultures contained at first only developmental stages of idgTC which it 

 was impossible to identify, and it was not until October 191G that the 

 presence o£ C parado<cum was suspected, while the full observation of the 

 life-history was not completed until October 1917. 



The cultures contained a number of species of blue-green algte, chiefly 

 belonging to the genus Fhormidium^ the filaments of which became inter- 

 woven to form a flat expanded stratum in which the Chlorochfjtrlum cells 

 were imbedded. The habitat of the plant in this case thus very closely 

 resembles that recorded by Borzi for the species originally described by 

 him as CentrospJiccm Facciolcc^j so that the species forms another link between 

 the entirely endophytic forms and C- grande^ which has only been observed 

 in a free state. 



The cells of CIdorocliytnam parado.eitm^ as observed in the present work, 

 are extremely variable both in .^liape and size. They niay be spherical, sub* 

 spherical, ellipsoid, pear-shaped, triangular, or variously irregular; apparently 

 mature cells have been observed whose sizes varied from 35 x 50 /j. to 



* Ue Toni, J. B. Sylloge Alganim, i. pp. 039-640 (1889). 



t Wille, N, Die NatUvlichen PHaiizeiifamilien, i. Abt. 2, p. 66 (1897). 



J 



} Moore, Spencer. '^Remarks on some endophytic Algi^.'* Journ. of Bot. xxii. (1884) 

 pp. 136-138. 



§ Borzi^ A. Studi Algologici, Fa:ic. i. pp. 87-97. ilessiuR; 1883. 



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