134 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



which appears to have been detected nowhere else, 

 and was called, from its colour, Oscillaria csnigescens. 

 At first the plant was only found diffused through 

 the water, but after a time a wet ditch was discovered 

 running from the lake into an adjoining field, and in 

 this ditch large masses, several inches in thickness, 

 and above eighteen inches in length, swimming on 

 the surface. These were evidently produced by ah 

 agglomeration of the filaments which had floated out 

 of the lake, and matted together on the surface. 

 The masses thus formed were tough and slippery, so 

 that they could not be lifted out on the end of a 

 stick. The surface when dried became of a bright 

 verdigris hue, but where immersed, of a dull opaque 

 green. 



It was discovered, and confirmed by the inhabitants 

 around the lake, that when the water has stood at rest 

 in a vessel for a night or two, a green scum spreads 

 over its surface, which is skimmed off before the 

 water is used for domestic purposes. This confirms 

 the tendency to aggregation in the filaments, and 

 accounts for the masses found in the ditch. Similar 

 masses are sometimes found floating at the sides of 

 the lake, or cast on the shore, but the times and 

 seasons at which this took place could not be as- 

 certained. 



Although the same county abounds in lakes, the 

 phenomenon above described is peculiar to Glaslough, 

 and in this, from all accounts, the green colour is 

 evident throughout the year. The filaments, in the 

 glomerated masses, were sometimes many inches in 

 length, running parallel ; but the frcQ filaments were 



