]. Monormia in tr ic a ta Berk.
Plate LX X V . Fig. 11.
Char. Filaments scarcehj moniliform. Reproductive cells
infrequent, globular, in series.
Bfonormia intricata Berk., Gl. of Alg. p. 46. t. 18. ; Harv.
in Manual, p. 185. Nostoc intricatum Meneghini, Mo-
nograpbia Nostocliinearum Itallcarum, p. 122. with
fig.
Ilab. In ditches of the marsh to the south of Frindsbury
Canal, near Gravesend, in great abundance in June,
1832 : Bev. M. J. Berkeley.
“ Forming small roundish gelatinous masses, floating
amongst different species of Lemna in fresh water, but probably
within the influence of the tide, and also amongst Enteromor-
pha intestinalis, and even within the frond in brackish water.
The plant is at first of an olive yellow, gradually assuming a
greener tint, and when dried of a deep verdigris. Very gelatinous,
delicately branched; the branches very flaccid. Under
a high magnifier the whole plant is evidently composed of
gelatine, in the centre of which runs a single moniliform filament,
following the ramifications, and in its progress curling
to and fro repeatedly across the thread, the joints being
nearly globular. The specimens from the interior of E n ter
omorpha are paler, and have often longer joints amongst
the globular ones.”— Berk.
In the authentic specimen which I have examined of this
beautiful production, the articulations of the threads themselves
could scarcely be called moniliform, althougn the large
reproductive cells were distinctly so.
38. NOSTOC Vauch.
Char. Frond definite, gelatinous or coriaceous, globose or lohed,
filled with curled headed simple filaments. Reproduction
consisting o f enlarged spherical cells placed irregularly in
the course o f the filaments, from which finally they become
separated.
“ This name is unexplained: it was first used by Paracelsus,
and adopted by Vaucher for the present group, which
before that time was included In Tremella: ’— Harv.
1. N ostoc variegatum Moore.
Plate L X X IV . Fig. 3.
Char. Frond terrestrial, expanded, gelatinous, livid, variable
in shape. Filaments rather distant. Cells oval, and
variable in size.
Harv. in Manual, p. 183.
Hab. Ireland : Mr. Moore.
“ This singular plant I first collected in 1836, growing on
the face of a moist hank over which water trickled. When
recent it formed a soft gelatinous mass, of a livid colour,
bearing the closest resemblance, both in substance and colour,
to those gelatinous Meduscc which are cast ashore along
the coast, and called by the country people ‘ fallen stars.’ I
again collected it on the same spot in 1838, when I sent Dr.
Greville specimens, who thinks it different from any thing
he knows, and coming nearest to Nostoc commune.” —
Moore’s M S .
I f I had acted on my own convictions in reference to this
species, I should have removed it to the genus Anabaina, to
which it seems more properly to belong than to Nostoc. In
the genus Nostoc there is an exact similarity In all the filaments
; in the species under consideration, a considerable
want of uniformity is observed, some being composed of cells
larger than those of others, as may be seen by the figure, in
which particular it resembles Anahaina, as it does also in the ■
diffused or unlimited mucous matrix, in which the threads
are imbedded, and in the oval form of the enlarged or reproductive
cells.