11 
ash, or ammonia; many which, when recent, exhibit the most beautiful tints of 
olive, red, and green, bleach white, on exposure to the sun and moisture, or become 
a dull black when dried in the shade. The dull yellow color of Chondrus crispus, as 
sold by the druggists, is the effect of bleaching ; the plant when recent is a dark 
olive. 
Difficult as it may seem, and really is, to assign to each species the natural link in 
the Algologieal chain, we enter a yet more perplexing labyrinth in seeking for the 
position of the link that connects Algse as a whole, in the great chain or system of 
nature; it lies somewhere between chaos and man; whether animal or vegetable? 
has been ably, and at great length, discussed by accomplished Naturalists, and by 
general consent they are assigned to the vegetable kingdom. The decision is not 
universally acquiesced in, or entirely satisfactory to myself, although I shall for the 
present treat of them as vegetable, in deference to abler pens. The germ, the seed, 
the spore, the young, all signifying the same thing by different authors, in most Algae, 
have powers of locomotion ; some observers have seen the little organs called ciliary, 
or hairs, with which the spore swims about, or attaches itself to a rock for permanent 
growth. I have not been able to see the organs of locomotion, though the rounded 
outline of the spore, and its brisk hurried motion, is very clear under a moderate 
power of my microscope; in a single drop of water I have counted more than 200, 
swimming with very lively motion. They are best observed on thin mica, or clear 
glass ; one drop of water from a vessel where Algse with mature fruit have been kept 
a few hours, or one drop of any clear water, with one grain of the yellow matter that 
exudes from the spore case of Fucus vesiculosus in autumn or winter, will rarely fail 
to show hundreds of the spores in brisk motion, while some remaining inactive, are 
collected in swarms, or sori. Some will occasionally leave the dormant swarm to 
join the apparently delighted swimmers ; others tired of the sport, will return to the 
swarm, and after two or three attempts to acquire a comfortable berth, will remain 
quiet. 
In the Annales des Sciences Naturelle for 183b, Mr. J. Agardh, son of the cele¬ 
brated Swedish Algologist, has given the result of some very interesting observations 
on the birth, motion, and growth of the spore, or young plant. Decaisne and Thu- 
ret, in the Annales des Sciences Naturelle, mention little organs called antheridia, in 
the conceptacles of the Fucus ; they are represented as transparent cases, borne on 
branching threads, fastened to the inner coating of the conceptacle ; after a time the 
antheridia fall off from the threads, and at maturity escape from the conceptacle, and 
commence lively movements. From the description of the antheridia by Decaisne 
and Thuret, I am inclined to believe that the same organs are external and common 
to a very large number, if not to all the Algae. Organs answering that description, I 
have discovered external, on nearly all the plants that I have submitted to the micros¬ 
cope ; a low power is ample to detect them, and from their frequency, it seems singu¬ 
lar that authors have not noticed them. In the beginning of October, for the first 
time, and since then, nearly every evening, I have observed motion in these organs. 
The reason why I had not previously noticed this movement, is, because the motion is 
not constant, and the organs were at rest when my sight has been directed to them. 
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