17 



vefuata, iV.feffdis) I have remarked its clofc affinity with C. amphibia, and in 

 the third F..foiculus of the Cataleiia Botonica, Dr. Roth has arranged all the 

 Vaueheria as mere varieties of this fpecies. My cbfervaticns have ma;!e me 

 incline to this opinion with refpecl to a majority of the fpecies, and I much 

 doubt whether they may not be all referred to either C. amphibia, dichotoma, or 

 Dillwynii. As C. myoihrons and C. commies, in their ftruefcure, approach thefe 

 fpecies, it is poffible that their fructification, when difcovered, will prove fimi- 

 Iar. Should this conjecture be well founded, the unjointed fpecies form a 

 family, fufficiently diftinfl from the other Conferva: ; anJ whenever the alga: 

 are new modelled, will, I truft, be continued with the generic name by which 

 M. Decandolle has fo properly diltinguifhed the Eclofpsrmes. 



M. Vaucher has made but few references to the works of preceding authors, 

 and, to prevent confufion, it muft be remarked that thefe few are extremely 

 inaccurate : thus all the Etlfpermes are faid to have been comprifed by Lintueus 

 under the name of C. fontinalis, with which plant none of them have the lead 

 affinity. Muller's C. vefuata is referred to Prolifera vfcata, which is a widely 

 different fpecies, and the reference to C. velutina with the fynonyma of Micheli 

 and Dillenius is equally erroneous. 



Conjugata. — Les grains font interieurs et renfermees tine a une dans des 

 tubes cloifonnees et toujour s fimples. 



This natural and wonderful family is better characterized by the name, than 

 by this generic defcription, under which many other plants might be arranged 

 whofe filaments have never been obferved to conjugate. 



Mu'ler, although he publiflied excellent drawings both of C. ni.'ida and 

 jugalis, entertained no idea that the difference between them merely arifes from 

 the fructification. Meflrs. Charles and Romain Coquebcrt, who alio difcovered 

 nitida in its conjugated ftate, were equally ignorant of this circumftance, though 

 they advanced one ftep further, and afcertained that the globules formed by the 

 union are true feeds which reproduce the fpecies. M. Vaucher's interefting 

 memoir, publiflied by the Philomatic Society of Paris, although full of im- 



c 



