182 FRESHWATER WEEDS. 



ascertained my plant to be a Tremella, and consequently 

 a fugus, and I placed it accordingly. But Greville and 

 Hassak and Harvey now place it among Algse, so my 

 plant is removed to another volume (Nostoc Commune) 

 Its cousin the Eiver Nodularia is a pretty plant. Directed 

 by Dr. Greville, I sought it in the stream traversing the 

 glen between the Blackford and Braid hills. A charming 

 hunting ground for flowerless plants is that valley. 

 Secluded even from the sun's rays, funguses large and 

 small luxuriating in the woods, and Algae crowding both 

 the land and the water, while the mosses outdo the foliage 

 in luxuriance ! There are weird stories, too, of the glen, 

 and its long deserted Hermitage, and ghost and other 

 legends hover cloudlike over the " puddock stools ' and 

 mossy encrustations. The Nodularia grows in dark green 

 loose tufts, the stems are as thick as horse-hair, every here 

 and there swelling into knots. 



The PalmellaceaB group are composed of solid globules 

 nestling in jelly. The Bloody Palmella (P. cruenta) 

 grows on damp walls and rocks. I first noticed it on a 

 wall at Kingston Deveril, in Wiltshire. It looks like 

 fresh blood when wet, but losses its brilliancy, and turns 

 powdery when dry. The green Palmella talso, found in 

 Wiltshire, like deep green jelly among moss in thickets 

 on the high Downs. The masses were shapeless, and 

 from one to two inches broad (P. protuberans). The 

 rose Palmella grows in minute globules as a parasite 

 upon tree Lichens ; I have it from the Braid valley, near 

 Edinburgh. The Eed Snow (Protococcus nivalis) is the 

 near relation of the Palmella ; it is formed of myriads of 



