72 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES, 
(elliptic in side view) was fully formed. The whole mass thus 
assumed a most remarkable appearance. It would be hard to 
guess why each conjugating pair became so closely embraced by 
so many other fronds, seemingly themselves with no intention to 
conjugate, or how they were held together, no common mucous 
investment or matrix being evident. It was only by pressing 
them out and so separating the fascicles of fronds, that the conju- 
gated pair with its zygospore could be fully disclosed, although 
without doing so the dark central zygospore could be seen through 
the mass. These specimens occurred as a thin floating film on the 
surface of a pool in “ Feather-bed Bog,’ exposed to the warm 
sun, and almost looked to the eye as if dry on the upper surface. 
Some of this thin stratum was easily made to flow into a small 
bottle, when it was readily seen that it was composed of quantities 
of this species, to the naked eye, in this aggregated state, some- 
what like the little clusters or fascicles formed by Aphanizomenon 
flos-aque, but, of course, of a different hue and on a scale consider- 
ably reduced. 
Mr. Archer also showed specimens of the minute Palmel- 
lacean plant, Nephrocytiwum Agardhianum, var. minus {Nag.). 
Be this a form or a species, it must be counted new to Britain, 
for, even as may be contended, that it is but a developmental 
stage of some higher plant, it is at least one which has not before 
been detected in this country. Nigeli, indeed, himself considers 
the two forms described by him as varieties of one and the same 
plant; and the fact that in the present gathering both forms— 
that is, Mephrocytium Agardhianum majus (Nag.) and NV. Agard- 
hianum, minus (Nag.)—occurred, seems, so far as it goes, to 
strengthen this view, but Mr. Archer had not as yet seen any 
forms that could be regarded as intermediate. The former 
occurred very sparingly in the gathering, the latter tolerably 
abundantly. On the other hand, the former (“majus”) had 
occurred to Mr. Archer once before in a pool near Lough Bray 
(the present gathering was made in the “ Rocky Valley’’), and 
again in a gathering made by Captain Hutton, in spring, in the 
County of Donegal, and in neither instance did the latter 
(‘‘minus”) make its appearance. The plant now exhibited 
agreed very well with Nageli’s figure; there was the same 
elongate, elliptic, or somewhat reniform outer envelope—the same 
elongate figure of the contained cells—the same spiral arrange- 
ment of these, and seemingly the same dimensions. - The greatest 
difference seemed to be that in the present plant the cells imme- 
mediately after division appeared to be somewhat attenuated 
towards the ends turned towards each other where division had 
just taken place, lending to such a somewhat cuneate figure. 
But this difference may arise from Niigeli’s drawing being taken 
some time after division had been accomplished, when the cells 
seem to acquire a like figure at both extremities, thus losing the 
attenuated ends, and as they grow in length assuming a slight 
