BtdbocJicete.] ALGM CHLOROSPERME^. '^l 



masses attached to the verticillate ramuli, and consisting of minute, 

 radiating, dichotomous, moniliform filaments. 



58. Batrachospermum. Roth. Batrachospermum. 



Main filaments invested with gelatine, hyaline, tubular, longi- 

 tudinally striated, composed of colourless jointed fibres, ag- 

 glutinated together, beset with distant whorls of moniliform 

 ramuli. Fructification: globules of dense filaments attached 

 to the ramuli. — Name ; ^aipa^os, a frog, and oircpjxa, frog- 

 spaton ; which the species, when removed from the water, 

 resemble. This genus is in structure allied to Trichocladia 

 and Mesogloia, but essentially differs in the structure of its 

 fructification. Indeed the Batrachospermea are much in the 

 same way related to the Gloiocladea, as the Alismacem are to 

 Ranunculacea. 



1. B. vagum, Ag. Cylindrical Batrachospermum. Frond 

 subdichotomous, cylindrical, equal ; apices of the branches in- 

 crassated. Harv. in Hook. Br. Fl. v. ii. p. 388. 



In alpine bogs and lakes. This beautiful species varies in colour, 

 from dull to bright and even aeruginose green ; under the microscope 

 it is hyaline. 



2. B. moniliforme, Ag. Moniliform Batrachospermum. Ir- 

 regularly branched ; branches moniliform ; apices attenuated. 



Harv. in Hook. Br. Fl. v. ii. p. 388 Conf. gelatinosa, Dillw. 



t. 32. E. Bot. t. 689. — /3. detersum, Ag. ; verticillate ramuli 

 subobliterated. Conf. atra, Dillw. t. 11. E. Bot. t. 690. 



In sub-alpine rivulets. Scarcely differs from the former, but by its 

 rather more distant whorls. 



Tribe XVI. CHiETOPHOROIDE^E. 



Plants growing in the sea or in fresh water, invested with ge- 

 latine, either filiform, or (a number of filaments being collected 

 together J formed into gelatinous amorphous fronds. Filaments 

 articulate ; articulations hyaline in the middle, coloured at the 

 dissepiments. Fructification : so far as known, minute capsides 

 attached to the ramuli. 



59. Bulboch^ete. Ag. Bulbochaete. 



Filaments free, articulated, branched ; each articulation bearing 

 at its truncate apex either an elongated, inarticulate, deci- 

 duous seta, or a sessile, sphseiical capsule; base of the seta 

 scutate, amplexicaul. — Name ; fto~S/3os, a bulb, and x nlT7 /> a 



