tlie animal kingdom. Ten or eleven species have been discovered,
nearly half of which have been detected in this country by
Mr A r n o t t and myself. After long examination in all states,
I cannot but incline to believe them true plants. Their excessive
minuteness, however, will, from the difficulty of ascertain-
taining their structure, render their situation in a Systema
Nat'uroe to many very uncertain ; and it must be confessed
they are more nmntelligible than some of those plants which,
according to A g a r d h , undergo very marvellous transformations
: take, for example, Oscillatoria fleæuosa, in his leones
Algarum ineditce, fasc. 1. 1 .10. where the animalcula into
which the filaments are changed (mutantur) are absolutely figured
!
A g a r d h retains E . fasciculata among the Diatomæ, and
imagines the peculiar character to be produced by the separation
of the joints ; but L y n g b y e is of a different opinion, nor
have I been able to trace in the slightest degree the existence
of any articulations, nor indeed any other state of the plant
different from that represented in the plate.
Fig. 1. and 2. EchinellaJasciculata on Eclocarpus littoralis, {Cotiferva littoralis,
Auct.) Fig. 3. on Conferva rupestris. Fig. 4. /¡, on Faucheria Dill-
fvynii.— All more or less magnified.