BATRACnOSPERMUM. 109 



B. confiisum ; it is also more solid, and changes less in dying : 

 it takes nevertheless sometimes a tint of pale violet or a 

 livid yello\y." 



6. BaTRACHOSPERMUM PULCHERRIMUM Ilass. 



Plate XIV. Fig. 1. 



Char. Frond violet grey. Whorls spherical, distant, distinct 



in the stems and branches. 

 Bory, in Annales du Museum, xii. 323. PI. 30. fig. 2. 

 Hah. Stream near Cheshunt : A. 11. H. Near Tunbrigde 



Wells : Mr. Jenner. 



" The extreme elegance of form and of colour renders 

 this Batrachosj^ei-m remarkable ; its stems are rather more 

 branched than those of the variety (a) B confusum, and less 

 than those of (7) B. moniliforme, are from two to three inches 

 and a half long, slender, and of an intermediate diameter. 

 The globules arc perfectly spherical, distant upon the stems 

 from each other the length of a ray, more approximate, flat- 

 tened, but always distinct in the branches. 



" Its colour is a clear grey, approaching to a most agree- 

 able violet. This last tint becomes dominant in drying, and 

 passes sometimes to red." 



This description applies closely to the plant, Avhich I have 

 twice met with, in all respects save colour, my specimens 

 when recent being of a pleasant green, which in drying be- 

 came blackish — a tint which the specimens Avhich I received 

 from ISIr. Jenner likewise presented, and yet I can scarcely 

 consider them other than the Batrachospermum ludihmdum 

 {var. pulchei'rimiun) of Bory. 



7. BATRACH0SPER3IUM VAGUM Ag. 



Plate LXIII. Fig. 2. 



Char. Filaments suhdichotomons, much branched, evcrgu-here 

 covered. Whorls horizontal, compressed, indistinctly con- 

 fused. 



