io8 
W. J. Hodgetts. 
DICRANOCHAZTE RENIFORMIS HIERON., 
A FRESHWATER ALGA NEW TO BRITAIN. 
By W. J. Hodgetts. 
[With One Figure in the Text]. 
ICRANOCHAETE, a genus of unicellular setigerous Green 
Algae in which the setae are branched in a characteristic 
dichotomous manner, was named and first described by 
Hieronymus 1 in 1887. The species described by him— D. reniformis, 
originally obtained from various localities in the Sudeten Mountains 
of Silesia—has since been recorded from several other Continental 
localities, but has hitherto not been found in Britain. The only 
other species of the genus so far known is D. britannica G. S. West, 2 
found amongst submerged Sphagnum —on which it was probably 
epiphytic—in boggy pools on the slopes of Glyder Fach, N. Wales, 
and was figured and described by West in 1912. 
The D. reniformis described below occurred as an epiphyte on 
the submerged stems and leaves of Ranunculus aquatilis and 
Callitriche sp. taken last April from a small pond at Harborne, near 
Birmingham. On these aquatic plants the alga was very abundant, 
always seeming to prefer the bright green younger parts where 
there was not much competition with other epiphytes; occasionally 
individuals were seen on filaments of CEdogonium which was also 
present in the pond. Hieronymus obtained his specimens on 
submerged mosses and liverworts (especially Hypnum spp., 
Sphagnum spp. and Calypogeia Trichomanis). The alga, when 
growing upon Sphagnum leaves, he observed, always showed a 
preference for the narrow chlorophyllous cells rather than the 
wider hyaline porose cells. Further, he never found the alga at a 
height of less than 500 metres; the Harborne locality, which is at 
a height of about 168 metres, shows, however, that at least occasion¬ 
ally it may flourish in lowland districts. 
D. reniformis (Fig. 1, A, B) is unicellular, but sometimes the 
cells are united into short rows (as will be described below), the 
individual cells being circular, ellipsoidal, or more or less reniform 
in surface view, hemispherical-depressed, and attached by a broad 
flat base ; in size the cells vary within wide limits, their longest 
’ G. Hieronymus communicated his first account of Dicranochcete reniformis 
to the Botanical section of the Schlesische Gesellschaft on Nov. 10th, 1887 • 
subsequently he published “ Ueber Dicranochcete reniformis Hieron., eine neue 
Protococcacea des Sdsswassers,” Cohn’s “ Beitrage zur Biol, der Pflanzen ” 
Bd. 5, Heft II, 1890, pp, 351-372, taf. XI, XII. 
7 G. S. West in Journ. of Bot., Vol. 50, 1912. p. 329. 
