290 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
an albino Starling (Stuwrnus vulgaris, Linn.), the first albino of 
this species which had come under Mr, M‘Culloch’s notice during 
his long experience. 
Mr. Peter Ewing, F.L.S., Vice-President, exhibited some plants 
collected in Cornwall this year. 
An Alga sent by Mr. Thomas Binnie, Jun., from Lower 
Kildonan Loch, South Uist, was exhibited and described by Mr. 
R. D. Wilkie. The identification of the plant as Cladophora 
egagropila, Linn., was confirmed by Mr. M. C. Cooke, A.L.S. 
Cladophora is a genus of green algae of wide distribution, occurring 
in both salt and fresh water. The body of the plant is filamentous, 
more or less variously branched, and, in its early stages at least, 
is attached to the substratum by a basal root-like process. The 
filaments are septate, each segment containing a dense peripheral 
layer of small polygonal plates, the chloroplastids, in which may be 
seen numerous starch granules, and some highly refractive globular 
bodies termed the pyrenoids. Each segment contains a number 
of nuclei, so that it must be regarded from a morphological stand- 
point as being multicellular. Reproduction is both asexual and 
sexual. In the former case the contents of a segment, which does 
not in any way appear to be differentiated from adjacent segments, 
break up into a number of ciliated masses, which, upon being 
liberated by the rupture of the cell-wall, swim actively about in 
the water for a short time, after the expiry of which they fix 
themselves to the substratum, and bud out into a new plant. 
Another method of propagation is by the breaking up of the 
filament into its individual segments, each one of which by apical 
growth develops into a new filament. Sexual reproduction is by 
means ‘of ciliated cells which swim about and conjugate, the 
result of the union being a spore which, upon germination, pro- 
duces the plant. The sporophyte generation is thus seen to be 
absent. 
The chief interest attaching to this species is its habit of 
forming large spheroidal masses on the bottoms of the lochs in 
which it occurs. The explanation appears to be as follows :— 
When the plant germinates, it is attached to the bottom by the 
root segment. During growth the filaments branch from centres 
in every direction, forming, in process of time, a densely felted 
mass, the meshes of which become infiltrated with fine mud. 

