122 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
in his memoir “‘ Morphologie der Gdogonien,” published in his 
‘ Jahrbiicher fiir wissenschaftliche Botanik,’ Band i, p. 1, for, with 
the exceptions of the species described by Profs. Pringsheim and 
de Bary, Mr. Archer, so far as he could judge, felt necessitated to 
regard almost all the forms both of Gidogonium and Bulbocheete to 
be found in books of any other authors as of less value than if 
they never had been described, and that it would be greatly the 
more advisable course quite to ignore them ; but inasmuch as the 
distinctions put forward in Cidogonie are founded, not in the 
essential characters presented by the fructification, but simply on 
comparative dimensions, it would be quite impossible to be certain, 
therefore the proper course seems to be to follow Pringsheim and 
name the present plant, for previous naming and previous descrip- 
tion, not being available, must of necessity, as it appeared to Mr. 
Archer, be wholly discarded. The fact is that it is quite probable 
that the true species in Gidogoniex are by no means so numerous 
as are the pseudo-species recorded on unessential characters in 
books. The following may, perhaps, serve as a description of the 
plant now brought forward. 
Genus ButBocHmTE (Agardh). 
Bulbochete Pringsheimiana, Sp. nov. 
Oogonium elliptic; dwarf male-plants (“ Zwergmannchen,” 
Pringsheim) straight, multilocular, in length nearly equal to the 
length of the oogonium, nearly always seated on the oogonium 
about the middle, rarely close under it, with “ foot”’ and “ outer” 
antheridium ; mother-cells of androspores immediately above the 
oogonium ; septum of the cell immediately below the oogonium 
(the supporting cell, “ Stiitzzelle,’ Pringsheim) very high up (or 
absent ?); micropyle of oogonium very close to its upper end; 
oospore elliptic, orange-brown when mature, seemingly not filling 
the oogonium, but leaving a hyaline border; whole plant rather 
slender, cells averaging about twice as long as broad, growth 
unilateral. 
It will thus be seen that this species falls under the subdivision 
of the genus with elliptic oospores, all which are characterised by 
Pringsheim as having the dwarf male plants, which are always 
here of the structure called by him “ outer” and with a “ foot,” 
seated always near to, but never on, the oogonium. Now, the 
present plant is well characterised by having mostly a single 
dwarf male plant seated on the oogonium, upon which it stands 
vertically ; sometimes there are two upon one oogonium. Thus, 
this plant presents a striking exception in this respect to the 
characters laid down by Pringsheim, and this circumstance alone 
would seem to mark it out as distinct. It agrees, indeed, with 
the other elliptic-spored species in the dwarf male plants having 
a “ foot-cell” and “outer” antheridium ; but it differs from them 
by the circumstance of the oogonia being immediately surmounted 
by the mother-cells of the androspores, all the other elliptic- 
spored species described bearing above the oogonia either ordinary 
