m i
S i
mIG
O M P H O N E M A m i n u t i s s im u m .
Minute Goììiphonema.
C l a s s a n d O k d e r C R Y P T O G A M IA A L G /E , i m n — N a t . O r d . CHJETOPHO-
ROIDEJE, Grev A L G ,E , Jms.
G EN E R IC CHARACTER.
“ Filafiexilia ramosa, apice clavas geminas fercnlia.—A g .
Filaments flexible, branched, producing at the extremity geminate cuneiform
bodies.
S P E C IF IC c h a r a c t e r .
G omphonema minutissimum; jilis sparsis, intricatis, capillaribus ocliraceis.
G. Filaments scattered, entangled, hair-like, of an ochraceous colour.
H ab. At the margin o f fresh-water lakes and ponds, investing small roots,
and even the larger Conferva;, with a uniform woolly covering.
Plant produced so freely upon slender stems of grasses, and other small vegetable
bodies beneath the surface at the margin of lakes, as to give
a tawny yellowish appearance to the water. Filaments exceedingly
slender, branched a few times, flaccid, 1-2 lines in height. Cuneifonn
bodies hyaline, containing one or two greenish granulated masses.
There can be no doubt that this production would have
been referred by M ì ì l l e r to his genus Vorticella; and many
naturalists will therefore be inclined to regard it as an animal.
A g a r d h is so uncertain upon the subject, that he has placed
the genus Gomphonema in an appendix. I am in the like
perplexity, and can only say, that in the two species here described,
I have not been able to detect the least motion.
Fig. 1. a, Gomphonema minutissimum, natural size, b. Filaments magnified.
c, c. Summits o f jilaments very highly magnified, to shew the contents o f the
cuneiform bodies.
VOL. V.