SEEING BY All) OF THE LENS. 



337 



color were conspicuous. Yet 1 had 

 passed the place perhaps a hundred 

 times, but until that day 1 had not seen 

 those verdant tinges on the earth, or 

 had called them "young mosses-'* and 

 Forgotten them. 



But 1 knew at this time, that to 

 whatever the appearance was really 

 due, it was not to any earthly mo^s, 

 for as I lifted a dead leaf, the growths 

 beneath stood upright in a little mat of 



tes-4 



PART OF A SINGLE FILAMENT OF 



ULOTHRIX FLACCIDA, SHOWING THE 



MASSING OF THE CELL CONTENTS 



AGAINST THE CELL WALL. 



microscopic velvet that was a hint as to 

 the real character. 



The plants growing at the roots of 

 the maples in patches so luxuriant 

 that they occupied the earth by the 

 square foot, are not rare, yet they can- 

 not be common. This, in connection 

 with two delightful secrets that they 

 later tried to reveal, makes them more 

 attractive than ever, and their lucky 

 finding becomes an event of impor- 

 tance, at least to the man that collect- 

 ed them by scraping the earth with a 



penknife. They proved to be Ulothrix 

 fiaccida, Kg., and showed themselves 

 to be worthy of extended study. 



They are algae. But algae thrive in 

 the sea, and are tossed by the waves 

 to the beach, where they are occasion- 

 ally gathered by lovers of the beauti- 

 ful in nature, but more frequently art' 

 trodden under the feet of the careless 

 and the ignorant. So do algae thrive 

 in sweet water ponds and ditches 

 where the water is quiet, and the sun 

 shines warm and unobstructed. But 

 while these were undoubtedly algae, 

 yet they were thriving on the bare 

 earth. A fresh- water Ulothrix with a 

 terrestrial habitat was worth investi- 

 gating. 



There are two allied algal genera, 

 Ulothrix and Conferva. They are al- 

 ways difficult to separate and to iden- 

 tify, and are as able to make them- 

 selves troublesome to the microsco- 

 pist as are some other of nature's pro- 

 ductions. But this particular species 

 of algal Ulothrix must be absolved 

 from such microscopical sins, for, aside 

 from its terrestrial preferences, it ex- 

 hibits a feature so characteristic that 

 it becomes diagnostic, and leads the 

 observer at once to that resting place 

 which the scientific name provides, and 

 which affords him an opportunity to 

 pursue the study, with a feeling of 

 protection that nothing will so pleas- 

 antly impart as will the knowledge of 

 the name. It is a comfort to know 

 with whom one is speaking, even at a 

 first meeting. 



The peculiarity of this peculiar 

 Ulothrix is that the cell-contents are 

 habitually, and almost constantly con- 

 tracted into a little hemispherical mass, 

 and thrust against the cell-wall where 

 it adheres with little change, unless 

 the plant is subjected to a rather pro- 

 longed maceration in water, and some- 

 times even after such treatment. In 

 a thread of the Ulothrix containing 

 seventy-five cells, seventy-two were in 

 this hemispherically contracted state, 

 and so remained at the end of several 

 hours' soaking. This, in connection 

 with the general microscopic aspect 

 of the plant, the size of the cells (from 

 7 to 9.5 microns in diameter), and its 

 habitat on the damp earth will, almost 



