OSCILLATORIACE^. 99 



I. PETALONEMA, Berk. 



Filaments stratified, decumbent, free, simple or branched. Tube or sheath very wide, 

 flattened, longitudinally and transversely striate, and crenulate at the edge ; endochrome 

 olivaceous, annulatcd, here and there interrupted by a heterocyst. Branches issuing in 

 pairs, formed by the division and protrusion of the endochrome of the original filament. 



A very distinct and easily recognized genus established by Mr. Berkeley in 1833, 

 under the name here adopted ; a name changed by Professor Kutzing in 1845 to 

 A rthrosiphon, for what reason I am not aware. The Alga on which it is founded was 

 discovered many years previously, in the West of Scotland, by the late Captain Car- 

 michael, and was first figured and described by Dr. Greville as an Oscillatoria. It has 

 more recently been found in several parts of Europe, and we have now to record its 

 occurrence in the New Continent. There are few more beautiful objects among the 

 fresh water Alga3, and unlike many of its kindred the fronds perfectly recover their 

 form when moistened after having been dried. When placed under the microscope the 

 filaments present the appearance of a cylindrical central column, containing annulated, 

 olive-coloured endochrome, and a wide winglike border at each side of the column. Tliis 

 border or sheath is obliquely striate, the stria? running in an arch from the margin 

 toward the centre, where they become parallel, and are then continued longitudinally 

 dowmvards along the medullary column, till lost in the density. The margin of the 

 wing is closely crenulate, and in age transversely striate at the crenatures as if jointed. 

 Such is the apparent structure : the real structure seems to be, that an annulated 

 central filament is enclosed within a number of compressed, trumpet-mouthed gelatino- 

 membranaceous tubular sheaths, one arising within the other, and successively developed 

 as the growth proceeds. These sheaths, thus concentrically arranged, are indicated l»y 

 the longitudinal arching striaj ; and the mouths of the younger sheaths, projecting 

 slightly beyond those of the older, form the crenatures of the margin. 



Petalonema alatum, Berk. Gl Br. Alg. p. 23, t. 1 , fig. 2. Harv. 31an. Ed. 1, 

 p. 168. Hass. Fr. Wat. Alg. p. 237. t. 68./. 6. Arthrosiphon Grevillii, Kiitz. Phyc. 

 Germ. p. 177. *S^. Alg. p. 311. Oscillatoria alata., Carm. Grev. Sc. Crypt. Ft. t. 

 222. Harv. in Hook. Br. Fl. 2. p. 378. (Tab. XLVIII. A.) 



Hab. On dripping rocks, imdcr Biddle Stairs, Niagara Falls, abundantly, TT". H. H. 

 (1849). (v. V.) 



This forms strata of a dark chestnut-brown colour, and of iiulefinite extent, on the 

 surface of rocks or soil in places exposed to the constant drip of water. The filaments 

 are decumbent, lying without order in the gelatinous matrix in which they are deve- 

 loped, and which forms the groundwork of the stratum. They appear to be unattached 

 to the soil, and each filament may be about half an inch in length ; but they are com- 

 monly found broken oiF at the inferior end, or the lower portion decays while the upper 

 continvies to grow. They are slightly curved, in serpentlike fashion, never quite 



