FRESH-WATER ALG. 245 
But the most beautiful and interesting of all 
the members of the gelatinous conferve is the 
Batrachospermum moniliforme (Fig. 23), which is 
universally distributed over Great Britain, and is 
especially abundant in subalpine streamlets. It 
is easily known by its growing in clusters com- 
posed of branching filaments, which appear even 
.to the naked eye like necklaces or strings of small 
beads, being strung, as it were, with numerous 
Fic. 23.—BATRACHOSPERMUM MONILIFORME. 
(2) Magnified. (4) Natural size. (c) Section highly magnified. 
gelatinous globules placed close beside each other. 
These branches are so exceedingly flexible that 
they obey the slightest movement of the water, 
and it is impossible to express the pleasure which 
is excited in the mind of the botanist, while con- 
templating a cluster of this little alga, in those 
pure, clear, sunny wells, with which he sometimes 
meets in his wanderings among the hills, spring- 
ing up far away in lonely spots, where the curlew 
