ALGALS. 



Alliance I. ALGALES. — The Algal Alliance. 



Algse, Juss. Gen. 5. (1788) ; DC. Fl. Fr. 2. 2. (1815) ; Agardh Synops. Alg. (1817) ; Species Alg. (1821- 

 1828) ; Si/st. Alg. (1824) ; Grevilk Alg. Brit. (1830) ; Hooker, BHt. Fl. vol. 2. pt. 1. (1833) ; Agardh 

 JG. AUnv Marls M,-dihrram'i ; Bccaisne in Ann. Sc. Nat. 2ser. vols. 17 i- 18, passim; Kiltzing, 

 Phi/cologia Gcneralis. luuUicher, Gen. Siq)2)l. 3.— Phycei, Acharius (1807 ?).— Thalassiophyta, 

 LamoitronxAnn.M'is. 20. (1S12) ; Gaillon in I>ict. des Sc. b^. 350. (1828).— Hydrophyta, Lyngh. 

 Tentam. (1819).— Artlirodiese, Bory in Diet. Class. 1.591. (1822).-Hydronemateae, Kees in Nov. 

 Act. Nat. Car. 11. 509. (1823) ; Ann. des Sc. 13. 439. (1828).— Chaodinea;, Confervse atid Ceramia- 

 riea;, Bory in Diet. Class. 3. and 4. (1823).-Chaetophoroideae, Grcville Fl. Edin. 321. (1824).— 

 livdrophycze, Fries Syst. Orb. Veg. 320. (1825).— Nemazoaires, Gaillon in Ann. Sc. Ser. 2. 1.44. 

 (1834) ; Phyc(5es, Mont. Diet. Univ. d'Hist. N. sub. Algis (1843). 



Diagnosis. — CeUidar floii-erless jyJants, nourished ikrourjh their tchole surf ace hj the medium 

 in ichich they vegetate ; living in water or very damp places j propagated by zoospores^ 

 coloured sj)ores, or tcfraspores. 



It is here that the transitioii from animals to plants, whatever its true natiu'e may be, 

 occurs ; for it is mcontestable, as the varying statements of original observers testify, 

 that no man can certainly say whether many of the organic bodies placed here belong 

 to the one kingdom of natm-e or the other. Whatever errors of observation may have 

 occurred, those very errors, to say nothing of the true ones, show the extreme diffi- 

 cidty, not to say impossibility, of pointing out the exact frontier of either kmgdom. If 

 those amliiguous marine productions, which Pallas considered to be plants, but wliich 

 Lamarck and much later Avriters have mostly placed among Zoophytes, have been 

 shown by Kiitziug and Decaisne to be merely sea-vegetables coated with calcareous 

 matter, we have m that fact another testimony to the near approach of the two realms 

 being through the Algal alUance. Indeed, if any faith is to be placed in the observations 

 of Kiitzmg and Honischuch, the one is capable of gi\Tng bii'th to the other. The 

 fomier of these %\Titers mentions (Ann. Sc.Nat. 2. ser. 5. 376) a very extraordinary fact, 

 if it be one. He cut to pieces the mai'ine animal called Medusa am*ita, washed the 

 pieces carefully in distilled water, put them into a bottle of distilled water, corked it 

 close, and placed it m a window facing the east. The bits of Medusa soon decomposed, 

 and emitted a very offensive odour, dming which time no trace of Infusoria was dis- 

 coverable. After a few days the putrid smell disappeared, and myriads of Monads 

 came forth. Shortly after the sm'face of the liquid swarmed with' extremely small 

 green points, which eventually covered the whole surface ; similar points attached 

 themselves to the sides of the bottle ; .seen under a microscope they appeared to be 

 fonned of numberless Monads, united by a slimy mass ; and at last, after some weeks, 

 the Conferva fugacissima of Lyngbye developed itself in perfection. 



Reissek, of Vienna, goes still further. He professes to have observed the green 

 colouring matter of ordinary flowering plants metamorphosed mto confervse ; such 

 forms were even ^^'itnessed by him proceeding from the pollen cells of plants (Bot. Zeit. 

 1844. July 19). Kiitzing also believes that the lower forms of Algals are capable of 

 being changed into more highly organised species, or even into species belonging to 

 different famihes of the higher cellular plants. With regard to these astounding state- 

 ments I cannot do better than avail myself of the excellent remarks of the Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley, than whom no one has a more intimate knowledge of the subject in question. 

 In Taylor's Annals of Natural History, vol. xiv, p. 434, he observes, "that such obser- 

 vations cannot be considered conclusive, apart from all prejudice either way, till a 

 certain number of bodies ascertained to be precisely of the same nature be isolated, and 

 the changes of these observed with every possible precaution to avoid error. At present 

 It seems that there is not by any means sufficient proof that the objects in question 

 really arise from genns of the same nature. The second remark we would make is, 

 that there appears too often m treatises of this description to be gi-eat indistmctness as 

 to the notion of what a species reaUy is. We know that in the course of development 

 higher bodies go through a vast variety of phases which resemble very closely true 

 substantial species which have arrived at theu- full development ; but Ave 'are not there- 

 fore to suppose, that in passmg tlu-ough their phases the production has really consisted 

 of such a number of real species. In the sense of Agardh this may be true enouc^h • 

 for when he pronounces the vessels and cells of phtenogamous plants to be Alo-^e his 

 meaning appears to be, however strongly he expresses him.self, merelv that they' are 

 representatives of Algse, and resemble them in structui-e. 



" We would remark, also, that the real difficukv of the case does not depend on the 

 question as to the difference of animal and vegetable Ufe. These e\ddentlv in certain 

 parts of the creation are so mtimately combined, that it is quite impossible to say where 

 the one ceases and the other begins ; and there is reallv no reason why we should be 



