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THE ANNALS 
AND 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[SECOND SERIES.] 
No. 16. APRIL 1849. 
' 
XXVI.—Note on Cystocoleus, a new genus of minute Plants. By 
G. H. K. Tuwarres, Lecturer on Botany and Vegetable Phy- 
siology in the Bristol Medical School. 
[ With a Plate. ] 
Havine recently been fortunate enough to meet with good spe- 
cimens of the Byssus nigra, Eng. Bot., 1 have been enabled to 
ascertain very satisfactorily its real structure, about which bo- 
tanists appear hitherto to have been in much doubt. The struc- 
ture of this plant is so peculiar as to render necessary its removal 
from the genus Chroolepus, in which it now stands; and with 
the sanction of my friend, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 1 propose 
for it the new generic name of Cystocoleus, characterized as 
follows. 
Cystocoleus. Plantee confervoidez, ceespitose ; filamentis arti- 
culatis, cylindricis vel submoniliformibus, plus minusve ra- 
mosis, vagina cellulosa continua singulatim inclusis. Chroo- 
lepo affinis. 
Cystocoleus ebeneus. Fusco-niger, fragilis, parce ramosus. 
Conferva ebenea, Dillw. t. 101. 
Byssus nigra, E. B. t. 702! 
_Chroolepus ebenea, dg. Syst. Alg. p. 36; Harvey in Eng. FI. 
_ p. 381; Manual of British Algae, p. 190. 
It will be seen by the above generic characters that this plant 
differs essentially from Chroolepus in having its filaments included 
in a sheath composed of distinct cells, the membrane of which is 
_ of a dark fuscous colour, and thus the internal filament can in 
most cases be with difficulty observed and examined. Occa- 
sionally, however, the internal filament, which in structure and 
_ character closely resembles the filaments of Chroolepus, protrudes 
beyond the investing sheath, and may then be seen to consist of 
oblong cells contaming the peculiar reddish oily-looking endo- 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. ii. 
