BOTANICAL SOCIETY OP CANADA. 
191 
tbe water of the lake is a more speedy, and probably a more certain mode of de- 
terminiTig the rupture, and transporting the spherules to suitable localities for ger- 
mination. 
These spherules, when carefully watched after theii" exit, are found to assume 
a new aspect. They gradually lose their spherical form, becoming more or less 
elliptical or elongated, and then passing through successive stages, until they have 
acquired the globose head, and neck, and root of the parent. If a process of im- 
pregnation takes place, I think it must be looked for after the spherules have quit- 
ted the parent sac. I have certainly seen phytozoid-like bodies appai'enthj pro- 
duced from the granular endochrome ; but as to the contact of these with the 
spherules, and the effect thereof, this is precisely the point at which all such inves- 
tigations become misty. 
Several points remain still to be noticed. 
Most algffi absorb nourishment through their tissues from the surrounding me- 
dium only. This is not the case with Botrydium. It is furnished with an extensively 
ramifying root, the object of which is not to spread over the surface, and give off 
buds for new individuals, as has been stated by some writers, but to enter the soil 
aind absorb nourishment. Several authors have admitted this to a certain extent. 
Berkeley suggested the probability that "the rooting threads of Botrydium^ Caul- 
erpa^ &c., do absorb nutriment from the soil, and perhaps for the reason that they are 
frequently ex])osed to the dry air, and would therefore wither without such a pro- 
vision," &c. Not only is it capable of so absorbing nourishment; it is truly a ter- 
restrial plant, furnished with a widely ramifying, absorbing root, whose^^fibres do not 
contain endochrome; and it is incapable of being developed under water, for sub- 
mersion has the effect of bursting its cell- wall. 
Most authors regard Boirydium as unicellular, and truly so. Hassall, while 
merely quoting in the text brief characters from Greville and Harvey, gives a draw- 
ing (Plate 77, fig. 5) which by no means represents an unicellular plant, and I do 
not understand it. 
While correctly describing this plant as developed from a " spore" or " goni- 
dium," we find many authors also describing an additional mode of increase. This 
is best shown in Endlicher's figure (Lindl. Veg. K. fig. 9). In the words of Griffith 
and Henfrcy, it is described as follows: — " The figure represents a specimen with 
a second budding from it by vegetative increase, and in this way the plants come 
to form tufts or groups like little bunches of grapes ; hence the name" (Microgr. 
Diet. p. 103). In reference to this statement, I would mention that I have not been 
able to find a single instance of a bud arising or being given off in this way from a 
filament to form a new plant. It may, however, occur. But it must be observed, 
that the appearance of the plants in clusters does not depend upon such a mode of 
growth. If it did, we should have each cluster consisting of differently sized glo- 
