MYXONEMA 193 
On dead leaves in a rain-water ditch in the hemlock grove, 
New York Botanical Garden, May, June (407, 608). 
The name given to this variety by Schmidle is hardly appro- 
priate, as the cells are no longer than many in M. 0 
The plant as here described agrees essentially with Schmidle's 
diagnosis, though the branching is perhaps less strict. 
In the station above noted this form has appeared for a brief 
period in May and June during two seasons. It is not present in 
early spring, and the pool becomes dry upon the advent of warm 
weather. 
II. MYXONEMA Fries, Syst. Orb. Veg. 343. f. p. 1825; Flor. 
Scan. 329. 1835 
Stigeoclomum Kützing, Linnaea, 17: 90. 1843; Phyc. Gen. 
253. 1843. 
Thallus covered with a thin slippery investment of mucus, 
consisting of a branched filament without great difference in re- 
spect to diameter between the main stems and the minor branches. 
Terminal branchlets pointed or frequently ending in long hyaline 
setae. Chromatophore a parietal, often laciniate band, zonate in 
the larger cells, nearly filling the smaller cells, inclosing several 
pyrenoids. 
Asexual reproduction by means of 4-ciliate zoospores having a 
red eye-spot, and akinetes which give rise to small 2-ciliate zoo- 
spores, and through a palmella stage. 
Sexual reproduction through conjugation of 2-ciliate gametes 
having a red eye-spot. Both gametes and zoospores formed only 
in the vegetative cells of the branchlets. 
Inhabitants of fresh water. Type, M. lubricum (Dillw.) Fries. 
[Etym. 5a, mucus, and via, a filament. | 
The fact that the genus My.ronema, as proposed by Fries, was 
composed of two diverse elements, probably accounts for its early 
supersession by the more homogeneous genera of Kützing. The 
first element comprised only the type (that is the first) species, 
Conferva lubrica (syn. Draparnaldia Ag.), a well-known branched 
form. The second element consisted of four unbranched 
species, Conferva sonata (Web. and Mohr), C. compacta Roth, C. 
oscillatorioides Agardh, and C. dissiliens Dillwyn, of which three 
are now recognized as species of U/othrix, and the last as a desmid. 
