112 
BREAKING OF THE MERES. 
from Dickie’s Botanist’s Guide,” under Trichormus flos-aquce , 
Lyngb. (p. 310): — “ For some years excursions were made w T ith the 
students of my botanical class to a loch on the estate of Parkhill, 
about four miles north-west from Aberdeen. The sheet of water 
in question is about a quarter of a mile in its greatest length ; on 
almost all sides it is surrounded by extensive deposits of peat, 
with the soluble matter of which a great proportion of the water 
passing into the loch is impregnated. The locality was generally 
visited in the beginning of July ; nothing particular had ever been 
observed till the summer of 1846, when my attention was arrested 
by a peculiar appearance of the water, especially near the edge, 
but extending also some distance into the loch. Numerous 
minute bodies, with a spherical outline, and varying in size from 
l-24th to l-12th of an inch in diameter, were seen floating at 
different depths, and giving the water a peculiar appearance. In 
some places they were very densely congregated, especially in small 
creeks at the edge of the loch. A quantity was collected by fil- 
tration through a piece of cloth, and, on examination by the 
microscope, there could be no doubt that the production was of a 
vegetable nature, and a species of Rivulana ; one, however, un- 
known to me, and not agreeing with the description of any species 
described in works to which I had access. Specimens were sent to 
the Rev. M. J. Berkeley ; he informed me that the plant belonged 
to the genus mentioned, and stated it to be Rivularia echinulata , 
Eng. Bot. Along with it, but in very small quantity, I also found 
another plant, Trichormus flos-aquce , Bory. 
“ In the first week of July, 1847, the same species were observed 
similarly associated, but the Trichormus was now more plentiful, 
without, however, any apparent corresponding diminution in the 
quantity of the Rivularia. 
“ In July, 1848, it was observed that the Rivularia was as rare 
as the Trichormus had been in 1846 ; to the latter consequently 
the water of the loch now owed its colour, which was a very dull 
green; the colour, however, becomes brighter when the plant is 
dried. In neither of the seasons mentioned was it in my power to 
make any observations on the colour of the loch earlier or later 
than the date above mentioned, consequently nothing can be added 
respecting the comparative development of the two plants at other 
periods of the season. Other two lochs in the vicinity did not 
contain the plants alluded to.” 
To this it may be added that specimens formerly belonging to 
Sir William Hooker, together with drawing, in the Kew Herba- 
rium, are also labelled, Rivularia articulata. Unless greatly 
deceived by appearances, the two gatherings of this historic Algn, 
which we have seen in a living condition, were of a beautiful 
chlorophyllous green, and gave no indication of an approach to 
the Phycochromacece. In extenuation of the name Rivularia , it 
may be added that at the period when Chcetophora endivcefolia and 
Chcetophora elegans were respectively termed Rivularia , the two 
divisions of Chlorophyllacece and Phycochromacece had not come to 
be recognized, so that in associating the English Botany plant 
