NOTES. 
ALGOLOGICAL NOTES.— 
I. OBSERVATIONS ON SPECIES OF APHANOCHAETE, 
Braun.— Last autumn, whilst examining a mass of Algae, collected 
in a ditch on Sheen Common, near Richmond, I found a large 
quantity of an epiphytic species, growing on Cladophora 1 ( fracta , 
Riitz). A closer examination showed it to belong to the genus 
Aphanochaete , A. Br. Each individual consists of a short filament, 
of usually only 2-4 cells, although longer filaments of 6-io cells are 
not rarely met with (see Fig. 22, 1). Branching of the filaments is 
exceedingly rare, but the short 2-3 celled individuals may be so 
closely collected together, that a sort of cushion is formed, which 
quite obscures the Cladophora at that point. The cells of the 
filaments are more or less spherical in outline, containing a single 
large pyrenoid (Fig. ?2, 6 and 7), and usually filled with large 
numbers of starch-grains. These latter so obscured the chloroplast, 
that I was unable to determine its exact structure. There seemed, 
however, to be only one present, more or less parietal in position, and 
differentiated so as to appear as a number of grains lining the wall 
of the cell. Each cell bears a variable number (2-5) of hairs, which 
sometimes attain great length, quite thirty times that of the cell from 
which they arise. These hairs are shut off by a transverse wall from 
the cell below, and their basal portion is more or less swollen to 
form a kind of bulb. Above this the diameter and therewith the lumen 
of the hair gradually decreases in magnitude, the apex being often so 
fine, that it requires careful focussing to see it properly. Certain 
highly refracting portions in the course of the hair look very much like 
transverse walls, and make it appear multicellular (Fig. 22, 7). 
1 Intermingled with the Cladophora was a species of Spirogyra , and although at 
some points the former was crowded with the epiphyte, I never saw a single 
individual on the Spirogyra. As far as I am aware no species of Aphanochaete 
has as yet been observed on Spirogyra , although frequently on the allied genera, 
Mougeotia and Sirogonium. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XVI. No. LXII. June, 1902.] 
