498 Annals of the South African Mum-tan. 



rather large, spherical nucleus situated in the centre of the cell, mid- 

 wav between the two pyrenoids (Fig. 3, e, a, It). The protoplast is 

 often provided with faint ridges, which give it a slightly striated 

 -appearance. The cell-contents stain a reddish -violet colour with 

 iodine, which possibly indicates some special form of (amylaceous?) 

 food-reserve. 



The genus Ecballocystis was established by Bohlin (Algeii d. 

 ersten Eegnell'schen Expedition, I. Protococcoideen, Bih. t. K. Sv. 

 Vet.-Akad. Haudl., xxiii, Afd. iii, No. 7, 1897, pp. 7-9, Tab. I, 

 figs. 1-4) for a macroscopic form, described as E. pulvinata. E.ramosa 

 shows many points of difference from Bohlin's species. In the first 

 place it does not appear to form macroscopic colonies ; although some 

 of the colonies encountered were considerably more extensive than 

 those shown in the figures, none of them would be visible to the 

 naked eye. But there are other more important differences, viz. 

 the complete absence of the prominent stratification of the membrane 

 seen in E. pulvinata, the greater length of the cells as compared with 

 their breadth, the fact that some of the daughter-cells nearly always 

 shift right up to the opening of the mother-cell (the last two features 

 leading to a much greater development of the colony, of our species, 

 in the longitudinal direction than in the pulvinate form described by 

 Bohlin), and the fact that division, in our species, appears to be 

 oblique from the very first and not transverse, with shifting to an 

 -oblique plane, as in E. pulvinata. 



Bohlin (Joe. cit., p. 9) considered his genus to be most closely allied 

 to Stein's Chlorangium, and this suggested affinity is heightened by 

 the discovery of Ecballocystis ramosa. Wille (Natiirl. Pflanzenfam., 

 Nachtr. z. i Teil, 2 Abt., 1909, p. 27) includes Setchell and Gardner's 

 genus Golinsiella in Ecballocystis, but it seems doubtful whether this 

 is warranted. 



As far as I am aware the genus Ecballocystis has not been recorded 

 by any other author, and it is interesting that the new records here 

 given are, like Bohlin's, from the Southern Hemisphere. 



2. Ecballocystis simplex, n. sp. (Fig. 4.) 



Thallus microscopicus, algis filamentosis pulvinulo gelatinoso hyalino 

 adhaerens. Cellulae elongatae, ovales, polis acutis vel saepe sub- 

 pyramidatis, 3-6 plo longiores quam latae, membrana tenui, chromato- 

 phora singula (?), pyrenoidibus duobus (?) vel saepe pluribus. In 

 cellula juvenali contentus meinbranam replet, mox tamen contentus 

 a fine inferiore recedit, ita ut spatium, ut videtur vacuum, fiat ; con- 

 tentus contractus deinde membranam novam effinsnt, dum membrana 



