238 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
characters, leaning to the view that they must be regarded rather 
as fungi than alge, on account of their being destitute of colour- 
ing matter, and of their essentially parasitic habit ; whilst their 
production of zoospores and characteristic fruit could no longer 
be adduced as an argument for their algal affinity, inasmuch as 
De Bary had found undoubted fungi producing zoospores, and a 
fructification essentially resembling that of Saprolegnie. Mr. 
Archer’s specimens had been found on effete frogspawn, and it 
was, perhaps, remarkable that these two forms occurred together. 
It would be, of course, impossible, as every one knows who has 
examined these organisms, to trace individual branches very far 
among the confused and inextricable tangled mass made up by 
them, in order to see if there were a possibility of their haying a 
common origin. But, at least as far as it could be traced, no 
such circumstances were recognisable, and the two plants could 
be well distinguished everywhere. Aphanomyces is a much 
smaller, shorter, and more slender plant than Saprolegnia, whose 
fructification, both as regards the sporangia (zoospore-cases), and 
the oogonia (oospore, or fertilized-spore-cases), towered far above 
the much more diminutive and slender threads and fruits of the 
Aphanomyces. 
Dr. Moore showed an Alga, composed of simple green-cells, in 
order to draw attention to a fibre connecting them together, a 
rarity in these growths. 
Mr. Archer was disposed to regard this plant as Botrydina 
vulgaris, which undoubtedly possessed the fibres pointed out by 
Dr. Moore, although they are not in Hassall’s figure, giving, 
however, in other respects an apparently truthful idea of its 
structure. 
Dr. Moore likewise showed some fibrous substance given to him 
by Dr. Carte, and found underground, and stated by the finder 
to be the hair of the Elk. Dr. Carte had determined that it 
was not hair, and had handed it to Dr. Moore, supposing it to be 
vegetable. Dr. Moore thought this production an alga, and 
closely ‘related to the oscillatoriaceous genus Microcoleus. It 
presented curled and twisted fibres, nearly colourless, and often 
splitting at the extremities into a tuft. 
Mr. Archer was disposed to be very cautious as to admitting 
this production as an alga, but supposing it really to be such, he 
conceived that it bore much resemblance to some seytonematous 
genus than to Microcoleus—such as Dasyglcea or Schizosiphon. 
He thought he saw something like a solitary thin central axis, 
and that the tufting at the extremities was due rather to a 
slitting up of the outer investing portion itself than to a spread- 
ing of fibres contained within a common tube. 
Dr. Barker showed Spirogyra inflata, and explained the phe- 
nomenon of conjugation as exemplified thereby. 
Mr. Vickers exhibited specimens of Coralliwm rubrum, and of 
a species of Salicornaria found by him in the Bay of Naples. 
