162 FOOTNOTES FROM 



bead-like dots of a dark-olive colour, to the stones of the 

 bottom, generally preferring the pure white quartz and 

 the glittering mica schist. The whole plant is not 

 larger than a pin's-head, or a small pea ; but it some- 

 times spreads widely in favourable situations, covering 

 all the stones in the bed of a streamlet, and giving them 

 an appearance, as the little, bustling, transparent waves 

 roll and sparkle over them, as if they were full of eyes. 

 But the most beautiful and interesting of all the mem- 

 bers of the gelatinous confervse is the Batrachospermum 

 moniliforme (Fig. 23), which is universally distributed 



Fio. 23. BATRACHOSPERMUM MONILIFORME. 

 (a) Magnified. (6) Natural size. (c) Magnified. 



over Britain, and is especially abundant in subalpine 

 streamlets. It is easily known by its growing in clusters 

 composed of branching filaments, which appear even to 

 the naked eye like necklaces or strings of small beads, 

 being strung, as it were, with numerous gelatinous 

 globules placed close beside each other. These branches 

 are so exceedingly flexible that they obey the slightest 

 movement of the water, and it is impossible to express 

 the 'pleasure which is excited in the mind of the botanist, 



