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Voucher's defcription, that the procefles which he obferved on fome fpecies 

 are of a different nature from thofe refembling thorns above mentioned. It 

 feems to me that the fructification of the Prolifera confifts in their internal, 

 granules, and, equally with thofe of C. fluviatUis, it is reafonable to fuppofe, 

 that thefe feeds may in fome inftances become lodged, and germinate in the 

 fubftance of the filament, which germination would necefiarily occafion the 

 frond in that part to fwell, and thus produce the Bot/rrelets, which M. Vaucher 

 defcribes. It does not, however, appear that the filaments thus generated ever 

 arrive at maturity, and I am decidedly of opinion that this is not the mode 

 deligned by nature for the propagation of thefe Confervx. 



Oscillatoria. — This is the name given in M. Vaucher's Hiftory of the 

 Tremella, to the Confervae of Dr. Roth's fec~Hon * Sporangiorum antiulis,' which 

 are here arranged fo as to conftitute a feparate genus. 



M. Vaucher obferved that C . fontitmlis, and thofe of its congeners which float 

 on the furface of water, are generally attended by " une efpece de feutre" 

 " douce et on&ueufe au toucher," which he fuppofes is of the fame nature as 

 the internal mucus of the Tremella, and he compares the filaments themfelves to 

 the beaded granules of the Liiukix. I have never feen this felt-like fubftance 

 except with C. fontinalis, and have always confidered it as decayed vegetable 

 or other extraneous matter, in which the plant likes to grow, nor can I find 

 that it bears the lead refemblance to the internal mucus of a Tremella. At all 

 events it is not fufficie/itly general to warrant the removal of the genus ; for M. 

 Vaucher admits that it is not met with in any of the fpecies which grow on 

 (tones, or on other fubftances, and thefe, I beUeve, conftitute a majority of the 

 genus. The fuppofed fpontaneous motion of the filaments firft noticed by M. 

 Adanfon, and mentioned in my defcription of C. limofa, however, feems prin- 

 cipally to have induced him to remove the Ofcillatoria from the Conferva to the 

 animal kingdom, for to this he fuppofes that the Tremella belong. During the 

 laft eight years I have frequently examined feveral fpecies in hopes of difcover- 

 ing this mark of animality, but muft confefs I could never obferve any motion 



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