BULLETIN 
OF THE 
SURREY BOLANICAL CLUB. 
Vol. XVIII] New York, May 1, 1891. (No. 5. 
Common and Conspicuous Alge of Montana. 
By F. W. ANDERSON AND F, D. KELsEy. 
Batrachospermum moniliforme, Roth. Common in cool springs 
and streams of the mountains and plains throughout the State. 
Extremely variable in the gross shape, size and color, as well as 
in microscopic characters. The plant may be found in favorable 
situations nearly all the year. It arises from a slippery substra- 
tum covering the surface of submerged sticks and stones, and 
mixed more or less evidently with carbonate of lime: this sub- 
stratum resembles closely to the unaided eye, the expanded, act- 
ive plasmodium of some myxogaster. The moniliform stems 
arising from this are usually clustered or gregarious. Specimens, 
varying from one to ten inches long, and from nearly simple to. 
copiously branched, may be collected in good fruit from May 
until September, according to locality. The fruit glomerules 
frequently send out stems which have, under personal observa- 
tion, grown to a length of nearly two inches, branching several 
times, and starting whorls of lateral branch nodes, the filaments 
from which became from one to four cells long. Is it not possi- 
ble that a fruit glomerule may sometimes separate from the par- 
ent plant, drift into a sheltered place and there send out branches 
which finally develop into a perfect plant, without any further 
sexual action, while the glomerule itself becomes the thickened 
-foot holding the plant in position? The first three varieties of 
these species, as given in Wolle’s Fresh-Water Algz, p. 57, may 
all be found with the type with us, according to the locality, 
and there seems to be no necessity for their separation. 
We may expect to find B. vagum, Ag., or one of its forms, 
as Dr. C. L. Anderson has found a variety in California. Dr. 
