2940.
CCENOCOLEUS Smith».
Red Ceerwcoleus.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
Gen. Char. Filaments branched, contained with their ramifications within a tough, more or less permanent sheath, which bursts irregularly. En-
S dochrome annulated. pec. Char. Filaments creeping, red ; endochrome green, very slender, and indistinctly annulated.
F o r m in g a red rugose mat of interlacing threads on
boggy soil, where it is very conspicuous, but from which it is
separated with difficulty, on account of the roots and fibres of
heaTthhr eaandds m eolsosn gtoa twedh,i cbhr aitn cahdehde relsa.terally and acutely, their
outer coat becoming cartilaginous, within which fresh branches
are generated and creep within it till it is ruptured, when
their free apices repeat the same phaenomena. Occasionally
some of the ramuli burst through the sheath at the base in
pairs, as in genuine Scytonemata. Endochrome very slender,
green, the articulations about as broad as long.
Found by the Rev. W. Smith in the midst of Corfe Castle
Moor, on the side of a little heathy hillock composed of deep
black peat, through which a spring of water oozes in the driest
weTathhiesr .curious Alga agrees in structure with the species
fio-ured at t. 2920 under the name of Scytonema cirrhosum.
The inspection however of an authentic specimen proves that
the plant of Capt. Carmichael is very different in structure,
and is nearer to Calothrix than to Scytonema. The structure
indeed is as nearly as possible that of Conferva distorta,
JS. B. t. 2577. Mr. Borrer’s plant then may be named Cce-
nocoleus cirrhosus, and we must hope for some future opportunity
of figuring Capt. Carmichael’s species from fresh specimens.
The distinctive character of the genus consists in the
growth of the branches within the tough, skinny, more or less
permanent outer coat.—M. J. B. and G. H. K. T h w a it e s . Fig. a, endochrome highly magnified.