GLOEOCYSTIS. 195 



BOTRYDINA VULGARIS, Breb. 



Thallus minute, rarely larger than the head of a pin, glo- 

 bose, green. Cells, 2-4 //. 



At the base of trees, moist ground, moss, etc. 

 Plate CXXIV, figs. 5-7, younger and older thalli. 



Genus 59, BOTEYCOCCUS, Kg. 



Thallus botryoid clustered cells, irregularly lobed, mucous. 

 Cells oval, spherical, or elliptic, united in families, which are 

 densely packed within a thin diffluent tegument. 



BOTRYCOCCUS BRAUNII, Kg. 



Small, free-swimming clusters, green, or at length becom- 

 ing pallid or brown. 



All the forms found approaching the characters of this 

 germs, were vague, not normal conditions, hence place little 

 value on the merits of it. The most distinct form discov- 

 ered is illustrated, Plate CXXIV, figs. 1-4, a peculiar condi- 

 tion with clusters connected by thin hyaline filaments. It 

 occured in large masses of decayed Spirogyra; pond, New 

 Jersey. Fig. 1, clusters connected; figs. 2-4, clusters single. 



Genus 60, GLOEOCYSTIS, Naeg. 



Cells globose or oblong, either single, or 2-4-8 associated in 

 globose families. Common and special integuments gelatinous, 

 lamellose. Divisions in alternate directions. 



The forms under this genus, like the unicellular forms of fore- 

 going genera, are merely conditions of polymorphous spore 

 multiplication. 



The distinctive feature constituting cells of this genus, is the 

 same as of Gloeocapsa, except in color ; wide, lamellate, colorless 

 teguments of the cells, one or more within the maternal tegu- 

 ment. In Gloeoccvpsa the life-history can be more easily traced 

 because material is often very abundant. The spore may be 

 followed from its escape from the filament through its various 

 transitions and transformations, until its development into a 

 young plant. In Gloeocystis this is not so easy, because, in my 

 experience, the cells are not so frequent and usually very much 

 scattered. The analogy of the two will lead to the inference, 

 that if the one is an intermediate development, the other must be 

 the same. 



