146 MORPHOLOGY. 



(See Plate II. fig. 7.) The majority swim freely in water, while 

 in a few the spores form in the course of their development a 

 thread-like prolongation, terminated at the extremity in a little 

 disc which adheres to some foreign body (organs of attachment, 

 rhizince), as in the instance of the Potysperma glomerata. In 

 others, again, the cells developed from the spores arrange themselves 

 so as to produce a greater surface ( Ulvacece), which at times ex- 

 pands at one extremity into a small adhering disc, and occasionally 

 appears as a hollow cylinder (Solenia Ag,). 



Finally, in the most complicated forms the cellular process 

 developed by the propagating cell gives rise to solid structures 

 composed of cells ranged one upon the other ; these are either 

 thread-shaped (Scitosiphon Ag.), band-shaped (Laminaria Lam.), 

 leaf-like (Delesseria Lam.), simple, or divided in many ways, or 

 developed alternately in an apparently regular order into thread- 

 like and leaf-like forms (Sargassum). The plants are for the most 

 part attached to some place by a disc-like organ of attachment. 

 At times we meet with bladder-like inflations (Fucus nodosus) or 

 pedicled bladders (Sargassum). 



I believe that no system is destined to be so thoroughly overthrown 

 as the one at present established for the Afgce, especially with reference 

 to the lower divisions ; and it appears to me that at least one third of 

 the species will probably be set aside. Certain it is, that many species 

 are described three or four times according to the different appearance 

 they have presented under magnifying powers of varying strength. 

 Hence it comes that most writers have had little or no conception of 

 the actual structure of plants in general*, and of the Alga in particular, 

 and that consequently a certain distinction between the stages and kinds 

 of formation is impossible. It is at any rate certain that mere stages of 

 development, which have very frequently been described as peculiar 

 species of plants, must fall to the ground as soon as their true character 

 has been recognised. My views on this subject are fully concurred in 

 by Kiitzing f, who, after thirteen years' laborious study, declares that 

 there are no species, but merely forms, of Algce ; and these he has fol- 

 lowed throughout the whole course of their development, showing, in 

 many cases by careful observation, although in a confused manner, that 

 they are devoid of an independent existence. 



The terminology in use at the present time with respect to the Alga 

 is a mere confusion of words ; and as my purpose is simply to throw a 



* Phycomater ; Gelatina inorganica (?), effusa, granulis (but surely cellulis) nuttis : 

 or Byssi meteoric! : formationes aerece, vegetatione nulla (?). What this is I cannot 

 decide ; but that it can be no race of plant, must, I should think, be evident to every 

 one who has acquired any fundamental knowledge of the nature of vegetable life. And 

 it will, at all events, be acknowledged by every man, even if he be no botanist, that it 

 is a flagrant absurdity to reckon among plants that which is defined as inorganic, and 

 to which is denied the first and indispensable character of plants. " There is a great 

 confusion in synonymy, which can only be cleared up by the careful examination of 

 original specimens. All delineations hitherto made only allow of a partial idea of the 

 real form and species, owing to their being copied from specimens which were not 

 sufficiently magnified, and also owing to their being drawn without the requisite exact- 

 ness," Kiitzing, Phycologia generalis, p. 249. 



J" Phycologia generalis. 



