174 CONJUGATED. 



of the filaments, I felt satisfied that its proper place was 

 with the Conjugate<2, and referred it to Mougeotia. This 

 reference did not, in all respects, seem satisfactory, for while 

 the true species of Mougeotia are almost constantly found 

 united, C ericetoriim is very rarely met with in that con- 

 dition. So rarely, indeed, as to make it apparent that the 

 species is reproduced independent of any union of the fila- 

 ments. The habit of C. ericetoriim was so difterent from 

 that of the true Mougeotia, being more that of a Scytonema, 

 that I had determined to place it in a genus by itself ; a step 

 which, on looking over Kiitzing's " Phycologia Generalis," 

 I found to have been already taken. Kiitzing thus accu- 

 rately defines the genus : — 



*' Trichomata simplicia vel subramosa, parenchymatica 

 hologonimica, primum viridis, deindc purpurascens ; ccllulaj 

 cartilaginece, crisp*, interdum didymai ; spermata nunc in 

 trabeculis, nunc lateralia, globosa." 



1. Zygogonium ericetorum Kiltz. 

 Plate XLI. Figs. I, 2. 

 Char. Filaments not unfrequcnthj hranclicd. Cells usually 

 ahout twice as long as broad, rarely uniting, hnt frequently 

 emitting elongated and irregidar processes, icMcli are usually 

 to he regarded as rudimentary ramuli. Endochrome oc- 

 casionally becoming effused, generally from one cell into 

 an adjoining one in the same filament, but sometimes that 

 from both cells passes into a space formed betioeen the tico 

 utricles. 

 C. ericetorum Harv. in Hook. Brit. Flora, also in Manual, 

 p. 125. ; E. Bot. t. 1553. ; Grev. Crypt, t. 261. f. 1. 



Tt has elsewhere been stated that I had been induced, 

 from the detection of ramuli on some of the filaments, to 

 consider Conferva ericetorum as referrible to the branched 

 Confervas. It would appear, however, on closer examination, 

 that while it certainly, by the not unfrequent occurrence of 

 ramuli, exhibits a degree of relation to those species, yet that 

 its affinities Avith the conjugating tribe are sufficiently strong 



