210 CYSTOSrERME^E. 



species in the separation of the condensed endochrome in 

 the inflated cells into numerous reproductive vesicles."* 



1. BULBOCH^TE SETIGERA Ag. 



Plate LIV. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4. 



Char. Filaments dichotomousty branched, tufted. Cells 

 usually Jive times as long as broad. 



B. setigera Harvey, in Hooker's Brit. Flor. ii. p. 350. ; 

 also in Manual, p. 121. Conf. vivipara Dillw. t. 59. ; 

 Hassall, in Annals, xi. p. 362. 



Hob. Common in boggy pools. 



Bulboch&te setigera has by most systematists been placed 

 in the same family of Algae with Chcetophora and Drapar- 

 naldia, the presence of cilia on the filaments having been 

 the chief inducement so to do. It is certainly to be re- 

 garded as the connecting link between the branched and 

 simple freshwater Alga ; but it exhibits a closer relation to 

 Vesiculifera than to any genus of branched Conferva, it 

 agreeing with it in the mode of formation of the spores, 

 and in its rigid habit. The next genus to which it appears 

 closely allied is Cladophora, of which Conf. glomerata, C. 

 fracta, &c. are examples. This genus has the same rigid 

 character, though in a less degree, as Bulboch&te and Vesi- 

 culifera. In a natural arrangement, these genera should 

 follow each other- somewhat in the following order : Vesi- 

 culifera, BulbochcBte, Cladophora, and then Coleochcete, Chce- 

 tophora, Draparnaldia, Sphceroplea, &c. 



" On freshwater plants, &c., in lakes and ponds. Tufts a 

 quarter to half an inch high, forming dense villous tufts. 

 Filaments irregularly and slightly branched ; the branches 

 subalternate or dichotomous, either erect or recurved, jointed. 

 Joints three or four times as long as broad; swollen up- 

 wards, from their upper part bearing a long inarticulate deci- 

 duous bristle, whose base is expanded, and half clasping the 



* Hassall, in Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. xi. 



