390 



cavity, the plant seems to me to be much closer related to, for 

 instance, Chrysymenia and Chylocladia, even if it cannot in a 

 natural way be referred to any of these genera. On account of 

 this I propose to consider it as a representative of a new genus. 

 I have not found this plant myself and my description is 

 therefore, unfortunately, rather poor, having had but some old 

 dried specimens, preserved in the Botanical Museum, Copen- 

 hagen, at my disposal. But the plant seems to stand drying rather 



n 



oroU 



PXDOoc 



Fig. 374. Coelothrix irregularis (Harv.). 



a, transverse section of the thallus (about 275:1); 



b, longitudinal section (about 200:1). 



well and, after having been steeped in water, to reassume fairly 

 well its original appearance. 



P|The plant (Fig. 373) forms low cushions composed of the 

 rather rigid and very irregularly branched filaments felted together; 

 they are fastened to the substratum by means of numerous groups 

 of rhizoids, these being able to break out everywhere from the 

 thallus. By means of such rhizoids the filaments in the cushions, 

 too, are mutually connected; a group of surface cells grow out 

 rhizoid-like from both filaments and anastomose in a way very 

 similar to that in Wurdemannia (comp. Fig. 360). 



The ramification is very irregular the branches being issued, 

 with shorter or longer intervals on all sides, sometimes with a 

 tendency to be second. 



