Ser. CHLOROSPERMEA. Fam. Hormosporee or Palmellee ? 
Prats CCXIII. 
HORMOSPORA RAMOSA, Ziw. 
Gen. Cuan. Filaments gelatinous, confervoid, each enclosing a linear 
series of oval or spherical cells. Hudochrome green. Lructification : 
cells of the filaments enlarged and become converted into spores. 
Hormospora (Brébisson),—from spyos, a necklace, and oropa, a seed. 
Hormospora ramosa; filaments branched ; endochrome radiated. 
Has. Growing attached to the filaments of Cladophora fracta in a salt- 
water lake near Wareham, Dorsetshire. August and September. 
Rev. W. Smith. 
Descr. Filaments gelatinous, irregularly branched. Cells at first. subcylindrical 
and closely coherent; subsequently becoming ovate and distinct. Hndo- 
chrome pale green, radiating from a central nucleus. Filaments at length 
resolved into separate spores, each of which is surrounded by a considerable 
amount of gelatine. 
This pretty species bears a considerable resemblance to /or- 
mospora mutabilis, Brébisson ; it differs, however, in its filaments 
being branched instead of being simple as in that species. In 
H. mutabilis the young cells are described as beg subspherical, 
and the endochrome is stated to be lamellose ; whereas in the 
present species the endochrome is radiated, and the immature 
cells are nearly cylindrical. 2. mutadbilis occurs in fresh-water 
ponds; whilst this inhabits a salt-water lake, to which the sea 
has access occasionally. 
The filaments of H. ramosa when young are not unlike those 
of a Spheroplea, between which genus and the Palmellee, Hor- 
mospora would seen to form a connecting link. 
[I am indebted to my friend G. H. K. Thwaites, Esq., of 
Bristol, for the drawing and description here given. The genus 
Hormospora was first proposed by M. Brébisson in the year 
1840, and a further account accompanied by figures of two 
species, both natives of stagnant fresh water, has been given by 
that accomplished naturalist,in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles 
for January, 1844. The species now described is the first yet 
