404 
Azotes. 
Although I have observed this Alga at intervals for a period of 
over six months, I am as yet unable to give any details as to the 
method of reproduction. Cells were frequently observed, in which 
the contents had divided into two masses along a plane parallel to 
that of the ordinary vegetative division of the cells; each portion 
contained a pyrenoid. In other cases cells were found, in which the 
contents were still undivided, but contained two pyrenoids. These 
are probably stages in the formation of zoospores. (Cf. Braun, 
Rejuvenescence ; Huber in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, XLI.) 
These points agree to some extent with the description and figures 
Hansgirg 1 has given of his Herposteiron polychaete , and I believe that 
the Alga I have just described is possibly identical with this species. 
Especially Hansgirg’s Fig. 5 has a very similar appearance to my 
Fig. 1. Hansgirg however says (loc. cit.) : ‘Die Faden von Herpo- 
steiron polychaete Hansg. sind mehr oder weniger reichlich verzweigt, 
die Verzweigungen auf der Unterlage . . . kriechend, seltener treten 
auch einzelne aufrechte . . . Aestchen auf/ Such upright branches 
he shows in Fig. 1, and I must say, that I have only very rarely 
observed them in the Alga in question, and they were even then not 
nearly so well developed as Hansgirg's figures show. It was probably 
the occurrence of these upright filaments that led Hansgirg to regard 
this species as being only a stage in the development of some 
Siigeoclonium or Chaetophora , and indeed his Figs. 1-3 look rather 
like young Siigeoclonium plants. Although I have had my Alga 
under cultivation in various conditions for over six months, I have 
seen nothing to warrant the assumption that it is a stage of evolution 
of some higher form. Finally, the hairs which Hansgirg figures on 
his plant have such very definite transverse walls, that they could 
scarcely be due to a false articulation, as in the case of the species 
I have examined. They very much resemble the hairs of 
Siigeoclonium. 
Hansgirg 2 3 , in 1888, gave a new scheme for the classification of the 
species of the two genera Herposteiron and Aphanochaete. The latter 
1 Flora, 1888, p. 214, and Plate XII, Figs. 1-5. Klebahn (Zur Kritik einiger 
Algengattungen, Pringsheim’s Jahrb. f. wissenschaftl. Bot., vol. 25, 1893, p. 295) 
has no right to state that Hansgirg’s diagnosis of H. polychaete lacks an illustra- 
tion, as the figures were published in a later number of the same volume. 
3 Ueber die Gattungen Herposteiron , Nag., und Aphanochaete , Berth, non A. Br., 
Flora, 1888, p. 21 1. 
