334 



§ Hymenomycetes (Agaricus, Boletus, Clavaria). 

 § Byssaceffi (Racodium, Monilia, Erineum). 



CCLXXIL. ALGM. The Seaweed Tribe. 



Algx, Juss. Gen. 5. (1788); Roth. Catalecta Botanica (1797); Dec. Fl. Fr. 2. 2. 1815); 

 Agardh Synops. Alg. (1817); Species Alg. (1821-1828); Syst. Alg. (1824); Greville Alg. 

 Brit. (1830).— Phycei, Acharius (1807 ?).— Thalassiophyta, Lamouroitx Ann. Mus. 20. 

 (1812) ; Gaillon in Diet, des Sc. 53. 350. (1828).— Hydrophyta, Lyngb. Tentam. (1819.)— 

 Arthrodieje, Bory in Diet. Class. 1. 591. (1822).— Hydronemateje, Neesin Nov. Act. Nat. 

 Cur. 11. 509. (1S23); Ann. des. Sc. 13. 439. (182S).— Chaodine*, Confervje, and Cera- 

 miarije, Bory in Diet. Class. 3. and 4. (1823).— Ch-ktophoroideje, Greville Fl. Edin. 

 321. (1824).— Hydrophycje, Fries Syst. Orb. Veg. 320. (1825.) 



Diagnosis. Aquatic leafless flowerless plants. 

 Anomalies. 



' Essential Character. — Leafless flowerless plants, with no distinct axis of vegetation, 

 growing in water, frequently having an animal motion, and consisting either of simple vesi- 

 cles lying in mucus, or of articulated filaments, or of lobed fronds, formed of uniform cellu- 

 lar tissue. Reproductive matter either altogether wanting, or contained in the joints of the 

 filaments, or deposited in thecoe of various form, size, and position, caused by dilatations of 

 the substance of the frond. Sporulcs, with no proper integument, in germination elongating 

 in two opposite directions. 



Affinities. Whatever ingenuity may be employed in determining the re- 

 lative degree of dignity in the vegetable creation between Fungi, Lichens, and 

 Algae, it seems to me that the conclusion which is constantly arrived at is, that 

 Algae are absolutely distinguishable from the two others only by their living in 

 water, and that, except for the influence which that medium exercises on 

 them, they would be identical with Lichens on .the one hand, and with Fungi 

 on the other. The method under which the genera should be arranged, al- 

 most every observer having a method of his own, is a question still to settle ; 

 but in this place we have chiefly to consider the more remarkable facts con- 

 nected with their organization. Those who wish to make the order a special 

 study will do well to take the excellent Species Algarum of Agardh for their 

 guide, and to study the papers of Bory de St. Vincent, and Fries, for general 

 ideas, and that most beautiful of all books, the Algm Britannicce of Dr. Gre- 

 ville, for the application of them to the Flora of this country. 



Those who have ever examined the surface of stones constantly moistened 

 by water, the glass of hothouses, the face of rocks in the sea, or of walls where 

 the sun never shines, or the hard paths in damp parts of the gardens after rain, 

 cannot fail to have remarked a green mucous slime with which they are covered. 

 This slime consists of Algae in their simplest state of organization, belonging to 

 the genera Palmella, Nostoc, Red Snow, and the like, the Nostochinae of 

 Agardh, or Chaetophoroideae of Greville; they have been called Chaodineae by 

 Bory de St. Vincent, whose account of them is to the following effect : The 

 slime resembles a layer of albumen spread with a brush ; it exfoliates in drying, 

 and finally becomes visible by the manner in which it colours green or deep 

 brown. One might call it a provisional creation waiting to be organized, and 

 then assuming different forms, according to the nature of the corpuscles which 

 penetrate it or develope among it. It may further be said to be the origin of 

 two very distinct existences, the one certainly animal, the other purely vegeta- 

 ble. This matter lying among amorphous mucus consists in its simplest state 

 of solitary, spherical corpuscles, (such are figured by Turpin in the Mtmoircs 



