140 FOOTNOTES FROM 



eluded by botanists in this vast and varied order of plants, 

 some of which are supposed to be fungi in an embryonic 

 or imperfectly developed state. They are composed of 

 hyaline or coloured articulated filaments, aggregated to- 

 gether and forming a kind of fibrous crust, sprinkled over 

 with loose granules, which are supposed to be the fruc- 

 tification. The localities where many of them are found 

 prove that they are not genuine algse. One curious 

 species is found on windows and damp glass in shady 

 places, where it forms round white spots, radiating like 

 a spider's web from a centre, and sprinkled with minute, 

 whitish, powdery particles. Another forms simple, trans- 

 parent, club-shaped filaments, from a line to an inch in 

 length, on the bodies of fishes and dead flies, found on 

 decaying leaves and weeds in the water. Several species 

 are found in chemical solutions and various infusions, 

 such as distilled rose-water, dissolved muriate of barytes, 

 and gum-dragon. The white flocculent matter often 

 found on the surface of old stale ink, and the yellow 

 hyaline filaments found at the bottom of wine bottles, 

 are referred to this class of plants, to which the generic 

 name of Hygrocrocis has been given, from their byssoid 

 nature, and the situations which they affect. There is 

 one species, the saffron rock byssus (Chroolepus aureus), 

 which deserves, on account of its beauty, more than a 

 passing notice. Unlike the other confervoid algae, which 

 are found in moist situations or in water, it is restricted 

 to the shady side of overhanging cliffs, trunks of trees, 

 leaves and other objects, and never grows in water. It 

 is abundant in the Highlands of Scotland, in deep, leaf- 

 embowered ravines near a mountain-lake or waterfall. 



