ON 8TEN0GRAMME INTERRUPTA, 89 



Mrs. Griffiths, who, in 1851, examined a specimen sent her by 

 Miss Gifford, thought that the tetraspores (which were most hkely 

 immature), were tri[)artite. This supposition probably arose from 

 the fact that the endochrome frequently divides in the lower half be- 

 fore it separates in the upper, so as to present the appearance of tri- 

 partite division. Agardhiuhis" Sp. ^garum," vol. ii., part 2, p. 391, 

 states that Messrs. Crouan, of Brest, reported to him that they had 

 found the tetraspores zonately divided ; hence it is probable that 

 they examined immature filaments from the nemathecia, which, as 

 they genei'ally consist of about four cells, with very delicate 'svalls, 

 might easily have been mistaken for zonate tetraspores. Agardh 

 does not appear to have read Montague's letter, as the Sp. Alg. 

 was published in 1852. The specimen from which the figure is 

 taken was gathered in Scotland, and belongs to Mr. H. Guode, of 

 PI} mouth. The only facts that I have not been able to verify in 

 Montague's description are that the nemathecia do not appear to me 

 to occupy both sides of the frond, and that only in one case have 

 1 been able to observe anything approaching a parallel arrangement 

 of the sori. 



Plate xxxvii. Fig. 1 — Portion of frond nat. size, showing position of sori in the 

 penullim;ite brunches. 



Fig 2. — Sorus of tetraaporps magnified, and part of frond from 

 which a. sorus has disnppeared. 



Fig. 3. — Vertical filament taken from the sorus, showing the endo- 

 chrome before division. 



Fig. 4. — Tetraspores undergoing transverse and then longitudinal 

 division. 



N.B. — The plate illustrating this communication will be given 

 with the next number. 



ON COLEOCH^TE. 



Mr. W. Archer, in his observations on some collections from 

 Latee Furnas, Azores,* remarks of a frequently occurring form 

 that " it is a Coleochcete, and, indeed, most probaldy the unnamed 

 ' seventh' species referred to by Pringsheim, at the close of his 

 memoir." As there suggested, there can be little doubt that this 

 is the same presumed 'young' condition of C. scutata spoken of by 

 De Brebisson, who founded this interesting genus. There can be 

 no doubt, however, that it is quite a distinct thing, sometimes taken 

 in our home waters in some comparative quantity, though of rather 

 rare and certainly of local occurrence. It forms cells freely exis- 

 tent, or occasionally cohering: side by side in small numbers, of a 

 globose figure,. tapering upwards, and surmounted by a neck-like 

 process characteristic of the genus, bearing an extremely long 

 bristle. This bristle seems to be continuous from its origin on- 

 wards ; that is, the basal portion aj)parently does not open so as 



* In " Juuru. Liun. Soc," for Oetobor, 1874. 



