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ALGiE FOUND AT ROCHE ABBEY, 



ON JULY nth, 1896. 



J. NEWTON COOMBE, 

 Chairman of the Sheffield School Board. 



1 he result of my microscopical examination of the gatherings taken 

 from the Sandbeck Lake, and from the 'Wishing Well' and Lake at 

 Roche Abbey, on the occasion of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union 

 excursion there on the nth July, 1896, has been eminently satisfac- 

 tory as regards the Diatomaceae, which were the objects of my special 



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investigation. Taking the above-named waters in the order in which 

 they were visited, the well-known water weed {Myriophyllum) which 

 grew very freely in Sandbeck Lake, and for a tube of which I am 

 indebted to the courtesy of Mr. J. Stubbins, of Leeds, proved 

 to be a favourite habitat for the following stipitate species of the 

 Diatomaceae : — Cocconema cv?nhiforme, Gomphonema curvatum, G. 

 constrictum* Achnanthes ex His, as well as of the needle-like Synedra 

 radians, and the curious tube dwelling and somewhat uncommon 

 Encyonema pro stratum, the frustules of which last-named species 

 move and pass one another up and down their hyaline mucous- 

 made tubes in very curious jerky fashion. 



The parasitic members of the family were well represented on the 

 same weed by Cocconeis placentula, which appears like so many small 

 lozenges stuck all over and along the decayed portions of the weed 

 from which the chlorophyll had departed. I was fortunate enough 

 to find in Mr. Stubbins' gathering two of the frustules of this species 

 in the interesting state of 'conjugation,' although too much attached 

 to the weed to admit of being separated and mounted without 

 injury to the specimen. 



Coming to the waters of the ' Wishing Well \ at Roche Abbey, 

 a dipping from which brought me by my wife some two years ago 



was found to contain an almost pure gathering of the by no means 

 common filamentous Diatom OJontidium mesodon (W. Sra.), I was 



not a little pleased on this my first personal visit to find floating in 



the depths of the cool clear well water, a brown silkworm-silk-like 

 and perfectly pure mass of this interesting alga. After so successful 



a second find of this particular diatom, which I may say I have 

 never met with in so pure and healthy a condition in any other 

 of the numerous waters which I have examined in various parts 

 of South Yorkshire, the 'Wishing Well' at Roche Abbey ought 

 certainly to be noted by Yorkshire naturalists as a place to be 

 visited bv the lovers of freshwater algae in their search fur 'gems.* 



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