Meyen^s Report for 1839 on Physiological Botany 469 



it has two heads. The propagation takes place in several ways ; 

 sometimes the first joint is as it were vomited (ausgespieen), 

 &c. The description of the muscles of the eyes and feelers, 

 as also of the nervous system, Dr. Stiebel intends to give at a 

 future period. 



I have perused the above treatise* several times, but cannot 

 determine whether it is meant as a hoax or in earnest — the 

 former appears most probable; for with any microscopical 

 practice the above observations could certainly not have been 

 made with so excellent an instrument as Dr. Stiebel possesses. 

 Notwithstanding the wonderful description, it is quite evident 

 that Lysogonium is only an Oscillatoria whose structure M. 

 Stiebel has altogether mistaken ; he did not even see the fine 

 rings which lie between the spores like the so-called intercel- 

 lular substance, and which, when the spores escape, either 

 separate or still adhere to each other. These rings however 

 have led Dr. Stiebel quite astray, even the eyes have arisen 

 out of them. What other philosophers have considered as the 

 head of Oscillatorice Dr. Stiebel has not seen, for in Lysogo- 

 nium, which appears to be Oscillatoria limosa, there is nothing 

 of the kind. 



In the Report for 1835 I have already mentioned the genus 

 Chionyphe which M. Thienemann has observed in granular 

 snow. We have now a full description of those interest- 

 ing plants, which must be classed with the Algce, but de- 

 cidedly belong to different genera f. Three species are de- 

 scribed ; namely, Chionyphe micans, nitens and densa, and the 

 whole genesis of C. nitens is given. The development of this 

 plant is quite similar to that of other jointed Confervae. M. 

 Thienemann observed at first on the snow simple spherical 

 vesicles, which extended lengthwise and became divided in 

 halves by a partition, after a lively movement of previously 

 invisible atoms had taken place in their interior. The halves 

 of the divided vesicle kept increasing, and constantly when 

 the molecular motion again appeared, another division took 

 place, but subsequently only the terminal cell of each side was 

 divided, while the central ones merely extended themselves. 



Finally, a lively molecular motion arises in these terminal 

 cells ; the atoms enlarge and appear like vesicles which cause 

 the terminal cell to swell, so that when ripe it forms a head 

 filled with germinal globules. I must remark, that the for- 

 mation of the partitions during the above-mentioned molecular 

 motion, as well as the production of the spores by the enlarge- 



* The figures are very beautifully executed, and can scarcely be alto- 

 gether imaginative. — Ed. 



f Uber ein neues Geschlecht von Schneepflanzen Chionyphe. — Nov. Act. 

 Acad. c. L. C. vol. xix. part 1. pp. 20 — 2(j. 



