BULBOCH^ETE. 209 



Hob. Waltham Abbey and High Beech, Epping : A. H. H. 

 Rusthall Common : Mr. Jenner. 



This is a distinct as well as common species. I have but 

 little doubt of the correctness of the synonym. 



17. BULBOCHJETE Ag. 



Char. Filaments attached, of equal diameter, branched. Cells 

 truncate, setigerous, the seta being rigid, elongated, and 

 bulbous at their bases. Reproductive bodies situated 

 either in inflated cells, when they are formed by the union 

 of the contents of two contiguous cells, or in the bulbous 

 portions of the setee, which become much enlarged for their 

 accommodation. 



Derivation. From (3o\&os, a bulb, and %atT^, a bristle. 



The reproduction of this remarkable genus has, until very 

 recently, been wholly unknown. M. Decaisne, in his Memoir 

 on the Classification of the Algas, contained in the numbers 

 of the " Ann. des Sciences Nat." for May and June 1842, 

 alludes to the mode of formation of the reproductive bodies 

 by the union of the matter of two cells in the same filament, 

 but does not appear to have noticed the second way in which 

 they are formed, viz. within the bulbous portion of the seta. 

 The observations of M. Decaisne and my own remarks appear 

 to have been made nearly at the same period. 



" In the above account of the reproduction of the genus 

 Bulbochcete I have avoided using the term spore to designate 

 the condensed endochrome in the inflated cells, which presents 

 so much the appearance of a true spore ; for I conceive that it 

 is most probable that this separates, as in the other branched 

 species of Confervas, into numerous small reproductive gra- 

 nules. 



" The genus Bulbochcete may be regarded as forming the 

 connecting link between the simple and branched freshwater 

 Conferva ; it agreeing with the Conjugates in the equality of 

 its filaments, with the Cystospermece in the union of the con- 

 tents of two distinct cells, and probably with the branched 



