240 SCYTONEME^. 



27. TOLYPOTHRIX Kutzing. 



Char. Filaments of nearly equal diameter, tufted, tenacious. 

 Branches feiv, continuous with the main filaments, an- 

 nulated at the base. Cells indistinct, rarely moniliform. 

 Sporules escaping at the extremities of the filaments. 



Derivation. From ToKvirrj, wool, and dpi^, hair. 



Kutzing, in his " Phycologia Generalis," has established 

 the genus Tolypothrix, which I here adopt. In the genus Ca- 

 lothrix Ag. Kutzing describes only C. mirahilis, a production 

 which diflfers essentially and generically from the proper 

 Calothrices, all of which Kutzing refers to his new genus. 

 A preferable arrangement I conceive would have been to 

 have constituted a new genus for the single species C. mira- 

 hilis, and to have allowed the Calothrices to have remained in 

 the genus in which they have been so long placed, and the 

 nature of which is so well understood by algologists. 



a. Branches discrete. 



1. Tolypothrix punctata Hass. 



Plate LXIX. Fig. 3. 



Char. Filaments somewhat irregular, very sparingly branched, 

 diameter considerable. Cells not quite so long as broad, 

 nucleated. 



Hab. Under a cascade, co. Wicklow : Mr. Moore. 



This species is larger than T. distorta, and the filaments 

 less uniform ; the branches are rarely formed, and the cells 

 punctated. 



2. Tolypothrix distorta Kutz. 



Plate LXIX. Fig. 4. 



Char. Filaments elongated, bluish green, forming large tufts, 

 mucous, somewhat rigid, branched. Branches erect,fiexuous. 



Conf. distorta Dillw. t. 22. ; E. Bot. t. 2577. C. distorta 

 Harv. in Hook. Brit. Flor. p. 369. ; Harv. in Manual, 

 p. 158. 



