326 Rev. H. Clark on a new Species of Hydroporus. 



In the structure of their antheridia and the development of 

 their fruit they certainly present important deviations from the 

 Mosses, which do not permit their complete systematic union 

 with any group of Mosses ; but, as in the form of the seminal 

 filaments, so also in the original foundation of the fruit, they 

 agree with the general formative process in the Mosses; for, 

 although the period and the place of impregnation in the Charce 

 are not yet demonstrated, it may nevertheless be asserted with 

 great probability, from well-known and not far-fetched analogies 

 (to which we may now add the formation of the progerms), that 

 in them also it is not the spore-cell which germinates into a 

 prothallium, but a mother-cell preceding this by several genera- 

 tions, that is fertilized. The Charce consequently stand evidently 

 as a peculiar group of the section of Moss-like plants amongst 

 the Cryptogamia. 



Moreover, the unexpected occurrence of the progerm in the 

 Chara makes it appear to be a general law (to which, contrary 

 to the earlier views, the Charm are subject as well as Ferns and 

 Mosses) that in all leafy plants the spore never can be directly 

 the vegetative apex of the first leafy axis. 



The further development of this preliminary communication 

 will appear, with the necessary bibliographical references and 

 figures, in the next part of my ' Jahrbuch fiir wissenschaftliche 

 Botanik,^ which is already in the press. 



XXXIV. — Description of a new Species of Hydroporus, Clairv, 

 By the Rev. Hamlet Clark, M.A., F.L.S. 



Fam. DytiscidaB. 

 Genus Hydroporus, Clairv. 



H, tinctus, n. sp. 



H. oblongo-ovalis, subparallelus, sat convexus, post medium paulo 

 latior, ad apieem modice et rotunde productus, crebre punctulatus, 

 leviter pubescens, subopacus, niger, obscure rufo notatus ; capita 

 inter oculos undique late et distincte depresso, sparsim punctulato, 

 ad apieem rufo tincto ; thorace antice emargiuato, lateribus leviter 

 rotundatis, basi sinuata ad medium (scutelli regione) angulata, 

 sparsim et fortiter punctato, antice juxta marginem transverse 

 punctato-striato, ad basin plus minus transverse depresso, ad baseos 

 angulos plus fortiter plerumque foveolato, nigro ; elytris thorace 

 latioribus, cum thoracis margine angulum obtusum formantibus, 

 post medium latioribus, leviter punctatis, sparsim pubescentibus, 

 nigris, fascia lata inaequali transversa apud humeros, vitta mar- 

 ginali (post medium in maculam triangularem dilatata) baud apieem 

 attingente, rufis vel rufo-fuscatis, hse maculae aliquando obsoletae 



