Batrachospermmn turfosum Bory, in Annales du Museum,
loc. cit. Conferva gelatinosa var. vaga Roth, Bot.
i. 127. Batrachospermum moniliforme var. (S) vagum
Both, Fl. Germ. iii. 482.
Hah. Appin : Captain Carmichael. Summit of Snowdon :
Sir IF. J. Hooker. Loch Phadrich, 2199 feet above the
level of the sea, Aberdeenshire, August, 1842: Dr.
Dickie. Frequent in Ireland : D. Moore. Cromaglan:
W. H. Harvey. Galway: M'^Colla. In the stream by
the wall near the entrance of the park hy the road-side
from Backham to Pulborough: E . Jenner.
“ M. Tliore, naturalist of Dax, first discovered this plant
in the environs of the city which he inhabits. I have
since met with it in peat holes of our southerly lands in
places w'here the Avatcr, although coloured, is p u r e ; it there
grows always at a certain depth, and rarely less than from
two to three feet.
“ In no other Conferva is the number of the filaments so
considerable as in this. Their total diameter equals tha t of
the largest horsehair. They divide in every direction from
a little disc, ramify to infinity, observing remarkably well
the dichotomous disposition in their first division, their
branches becoming subsequently vague. Their total length
extends even to four inches.
“ F rom their origin, even to their extremity, these filaments
are clothed with microscopic branches, so impacted that the
whorls are not apparent in scarcely any direction: with a
simple lens they are not better discovered, from Avhich it
might be supposed that one was observing a Thorea. I t is
but towards the points of the branches that, hy the assistance
of a strong lens, they are at last distinguished. These whorls
are very closely approximated, horizontal, compressed the
one upon the other, and becoming so confused as to form
around the filament, which is green or yellow, and very
flexible, a continuous down, mucous to the touch, sometimes
very pale, more frequently of a very agreeable bluish watery
g re en : this colour is moreover deep towards the point of the
brandies. As it grows old the plant turns yellow and is
discoloured.”
The apices of the branches in young specimens arc often
dilated, and all the filaments present in this state a greater
diameter, and a deeper colour, being usually glaucous green.
Some specimens of what I regard as a variety of this
species were sent me by Dr. Dickie. They differed from the
species in its ordinary condition in the fact of the Imver whorls
of the main stems being distinctly moniliform.
8. B a t r a c h o s p e r m u m a l p e s t r e Shut.
Plate X IV . Fig. 2.
Char. Frond Hack, very mucous, much branched; alternately
forming very obtuse angles with the principal filaments.
“Whorls o f the stems spherical, distinct, hut approximate,
branches compressed.
Batrachospermum alpestre, ShuttlcAVorth’s MS.
Hah. Elver Lea, Cheshunt: A . II. H. Ire la n d : IV. IL
Harvey.
I t is now some three or four years since I first encountered
this species, from which time I regarded it as distinct from
any described British Batrachospermum, an opinion whicli
I was happy to have confirmed recently by the receipt of
a specimen marked B. alpestre Shuttleworth, and which
exactly accords with my own in all respects, except in being
much smaller. A t the same time, Mr. Harvey, to ivliom
I Avas indebted for the authentic specimen of B . alpestre,
sent me a second example collected by himself, Avith the observation
affixed to it, “ very like B. alpestre, but I have
not examined it.”
This species is easily recognised by th e eye alone, either
In its recent or dried s ta te ; in th e former its size, g re a t
lubricity, je tty black colour, and approximate, y e t for the most
p a rt exactly spherical Avhorls, are rem a rk a b le ; in th e la tte r,
m which also the black tin t is preserved, it may be distinguished
b y th e multiplicity of its branches, AA'liich are, cxccjit the pri