46 Mr. HassalPs Notices of British Freshwater Conferva. 



species of the genus Mougeotia. In no case is there ever any 

 trace of division in the contents of the cells, nor are the spores 

 ever circular : to both these points I particularly attended. 

 Pond in the parish of Enfield, also near Notting Hill. 



Mougeotia distans. Diameter of the filaments about equal to 

 that of Mougeotia genuflewa, extremities pointed ; cells four 

 times as long as broad, conjugation parallel, connecting pro- 

 cesses very long ; spores oval, contained within the cell. 

 I have only met with one specimen of this very distinct 



species. 

 Cheshunt. 



Mougeotia ovalis. Filaments about two inches long, of rather 

 less diameter than those of the preceding species, and con- 

 jugating parallelly; cells nearly twice as long as broad, 

 those becoming inflated and oval which receive the spores, 

 which are oval, and nearly fill the cavity of the cells. 

 Of this distinct little species I lately received two specimens 

 from the Rev. David Landsborough, collected by that gentle- 

 man in the parish of Stevenston, Ayrshire : one of these hap- 

 pening fortunately to be in seed, I was enabled to ascertain its 

 distinctness, which I otherwise could not have done with the 

 same certainty. In young filaments the cells are so full that 

 the joints are invisible. 



Mougeotia notabilis. Filaments rather slender, not conju- 

 gating, at first cylindrical, but subsequently becoming an- 

 gulated, the angle of flexion being situated in the centre 

 of each cell ; cells usually about eight or ten times as long 

 as broad, but frequently longer ; spores non-symmetrical, 

 a single one being placed in the angle formed in each of 

 the cells. 



When I first noticed this singular species I was under the 

 impression that it was to be regarded either as Mougeotia 

 glutinosa in an incomplete state, with the filaments just about 

 to unite to form the quadrangular sporangium, or as a distinct 

 species that had not as yet arrived at the perfect stage of its 

 formation ; reflection, however, soon convinced me that neither 

 of these ideas could be correct, but that it ought to be con- 

 sidered as a distinct and perfectly formed production, a view 

 which I was at first most unwilling to adopt, for it presents 

 in the circumstance of the formation of a spore in each of the 

 cells of all the filaments, an anomaly which I am not able to 

 account for physiologically ; in all other cases the spores be- 

 ing the result of the union of the contents of two distinct 

 cells, placed either in the same or different filaments. That 



