286 RHODOPHYCBJS. 



Chantransia compacta. Ralfs. Ann. Nat. Hist. 1851, p. 304. 



Plant minute, hemispherical, inky-green, firm ; filaments 

 much branched, joints twice as long as broad, branches erecto- 

 patent. 



SIZE. Not stated. 



On aquatic plants. 



" It forms very minute hemispherical tnf ts or fronds of a dark colour, 

 and very much resembles a Rivularia in appearance ; the fronds are so 

 firm as to require considerable pressure in order to separate the fila- 

 ments for microscopic examination. Filaments comparatively stout, 

 rigid, much branched at the base, horizontal and interlacing. Branches 

 crowded, erecto-patent ; joints about twice as long as broad, but the 

 lower ones frequently shorter. Capsules orbicular, numerous, lateral, 

 arising from all parts of the plant, and usually on short stalks. Differs 

 from C. chalybea in its compact, firm habit ; more crowded branches, 

 shorter joints and more scattered capsules.'' Ralfs. 



Probably this is C. pyymcea, but we have seen no specimen. 



FAMILY III. BATPtACHOSPERME^E. 



Dioecious algee. Thallus filamentous, articulate, branched, 

 violet, or violet-purple or bluish-green, covered with mucous ; 

 primary filament and branches composed of a single central 

 series of cells, and numerous external parallel continuous or in- 

 terrupted secondary series; either furnished with globosely or 

 subglobosely densely conglobate tufts, of equally distant verti- 

 cillate fascicles of branches, or everywhere densely covered with 

 simple or forked branches. Vegetation terminal, 



GENUS. 119. BATRACHOSFERMUM. Roth. (1800.) 



Thallus moniliform, composed of a simple series of medullary 

 cells, and a cortical accessory parallel series, clothed with sub- 

 globosely clustered fascicles of branches, which latter are some- 

 times more or less dispersed. 



Professor Horatio "Wood has abstracted so well what is known of the 

 reproductive process in the Batrachosperms that we cannot do better 

 than quote his observations in full: "Frequently in well-advanced 

 Batrachosperms there will be seen scattered among the glomerules large 

 round, firm, dense balls, composed of a great number of small closely 

 attached cells. These are the reproductive bodies. According to Graf 

 zu Solms Lanbach (" Botanische Zeitung," 18G7, p. 161), they are the 

 result of sexual reproduction, and are developed from ' antheridia ' and 

 ' trichogonia' (female organs) in the following manner :~ 



" The antheridia are small roundish cells full of a colourless proto- 

 plasm, which is remarkable for the very numerous bright granules which 

 it contains. They occur either scattered, or in groups, and are placed 



