MOUGEOTIA. 171 



13. MOUGEOTIA Ag. 

 Char. Filaments coalescing usually ivithout the intervention 

 of transverse tubes ; no transference of cndochrome, and 

 no formation of sporangia taking place. Conjugation ««- 

 gular. 



Kamed in honour of M. J. B. Mougeot, a German botanist. 



The genus Mougeotia coiTcsponds with Mesocarpus, save in 

 the important fact that, although the filaments conjoin, there 

 is no transference of endochrome, and consequently no form- 

 ation of sporangia. 



The following account of the genus Mougeotia was inserted 

 in the " Annals and INIagazine of Natural History : " — 



" The real nature of the genus Mougeotia does not liitlierto 

 appear to have been at all understood, and consequently the 

 definitions given of it up to the present time are either erro- 

 neous or incomplete. 



" Vaucher thus defines the genus Mougeotia : — ' Conjugees 

 a tube interieur.' And Agardh, as follows : — ' Fila articulata 

 reticulata conjuncta, granulis absque ordine dispositis, fructibus 

 in angulis rcticidi collocatis.^ 



" The first of these definitions is imperfect, and the second 

 inaccurate, inasmuch as it contains a reference to perfect 

 fructification distinct from the granules or zoospores. 



" The true and original species of the genus Mougeotia are 

 all characterized by the singular fact, that sporangia, which 

 Agardh calls the fruit, are never found in them as they are in 

 all other species of the conjugating tribe of Conferva. The 

 filaments do indeed unite, but no transference of the con- 

 tents of one cell into the interior of the other, and conse- 

 quently no formation of sporangia ever take place. 



" This remarkable circumstance in the history of the genus 

 Mougeotia, resting as it does on long-continued and careful 

 observation of the species composing it, docs not admit of the 

 smallest doubt ; and although not absolutely stated as a fact, 

 it is yet strongly implied by Vaucher in his description of Mou- 

 'geotia genujiexa, in which the following observations occur : — 



" ' This Conjugata has not presented to me the round 



