350 CONFERVA ON THE SKIN OF THE GOLD-FISH. 



the exact nature of the clear vesicle which is found in each of 

 the articulations. It may be the nucleus of the original cell 

 of the articulation ; but if it be so, it must be considered as a 

 barren nucleus ; having increased in size proportional to its 

 cell, having lost the normal appearance of a nucleus, and 

 having never performed the function of one. May it not, with 

 greater propriety, be considered as some form of the endo- 

 chrome, a result of development of the granules of the articu- 

 lation ? It exactly resembles the spores of the terminal articu- 

 lations, which, as has been already stated, originate in the 

 granular endochrome of this articulation. 



The parasitic plant I have now described resembles in many 

 respects those found by Hannover and Stilling on the newt 

 and frog. As in these, the filaments swarmed with infusorial 

 animalcules, Monads, Bursarice, etc. Some of these doubtless 

 lived among the filaments while the fish was still alive ; others, 

 again, as the Bursarice, must have taken up their residence 

 there after the commencement of putrefaction. Hannover, in 

 Muller's Archiv, 1842, page 73, has described the develop- 

 ment of the conferva of the frog and newt, and has mentioned 

 the animal-like movements of the spores. Mr. Daniel Cooper 

 (Microscopic Journal) has frequently observed a cotton-like 

 conferva on the gills and fins of gold-fish. From a preserved 

 specimen, an examination of which was afforded me by Pro- 

 fessor Balfour, I am inclined to believe in the existence of 

 more than one species of this genus of parasitic Algae. 



