400 . Mr. Tawarres on the early Stages of Development 
for a minute Conferva; yet, notwithstanding, it bears the same relation merely 
' to the mature Lemanea that the confervoid shoots do to the perfect Moss, or : 
the mycelium to the fully-developed Agaric. 
Kützing in his * Phycologia Generalis; p. 322. tab. 19. fig. 10, has described 
and figured the early condition of Lemanea torulosa, Ag. Except in the more 
considerable development of the primordial confervoid filaments of the Le- 
manea fluviatilis, there is little difference in the mode of growth of the two 
. Species. : 
From a cell near the base of the conferva-like structure a branch is given 
off (Tas. XIX. fig. 8a & b), which at first differs apparently from one of the 
ordinary branches only in the cells of which it is composed being much 
shorter. This little branch, however, increases very rapidly in length as well 
as thickness from the multiplication of its cells by frequent fissiparous divi- 
sion. At one period of its growth it recals to mind the silicle of an Ectocar- 
pus; but the similarity does not long continue, for it soon exceeds in height 
by many times the conferva-like filaments ; and as this rapidity and excess of 
development has called for a greater supply of nourishment and a firmer sup- 
port than could be furnished by the filament from which it took its origin, a 
number of roots have been given off from its own base (just as occurs in the 
phyton of a Moss), by which it is enabled to assume an independent existence 
(fig. 8 b & c), and from this period it by degrees puts on the well-known 
characters of the Lemanea frond, which it is quite unnecessary to describe 
upon this occasion. 
The subject of the early stages of growth of the Alge opens a wide field 
for investigation, which would doubtless repay the careful observer by the 
discovery of many most interesting facts, valuable to the physiologist as well 
as to the systematic botanist. It is highly probable that very many of the 
Structures now classed with the Palmellew are merely immature states of 
more complicated species; and there are perhaps many others of the same 
character which we at present look upon as being in the condition of complete 
maturity. For arriving at safe conclusions, however, in such investigations, a 
good microscope and a practised eye are indispensably requisite, since without 
such precautions, really essential characters in these minute forms easily 
escape detection, and structures totally different come to be considered iden- . 
