SPHACELARIA. 55 



In the sea, on rocks and stones, common. Summer and winter. — Fila- 

 ments 3 — 4 inches higli, irregularly branched, the branches thick and flex- 

 uous, obtuse, densely clothed with erowded, mostly simple, but occasionally 

 forked ramuli. Colour dull brown or dirty olive-green. Fructification as 

 in the preceding. 



II. Sphacelaria. Lyngb. [Plate 9, B.j 



F^7rtme«/.s jointed, rigid, distichonsly branched, pinnated, 

 rarely subdichotomons. Apices of the branches distended, 

 membranous, containing a dark, granular mass. Fructifica- 

 tion, oval spores, borne on the ramuli. — Name, I,<pafiEhoi, 

 (ja)t(jrene ; from the withered tips of the fertile branches. 



* Frond beset with ivoolly fibres at the base or loiver part. 



1. S. Jilicina, Gratel. ; frond shaggy at the base, slender, 

 irregularly branched ; branches lanceolate, erecto-patent, bi- 

 tripinnate ; pinnae alternate erect ; pinnules fasciculato-mul- 

 lifid ; axils all very acute and narrow. Hook. Br. Fl. ii. p. 

 3-23; IVyatt, Alg. Danm. No. 170. S. lu/pnoides, Grev. 

 Crypt. Fl. t. 348. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. cxlii". 



On rocks and Algae near low-water mark. Perennial. Winter. South of 

 England and Ireland, very rare. — Stems 2 — 4 inclies high, covered vvilh curl- 

 ed brown fibres at the base, slender, simple or irregularly branched, often 

 bearing from the summit numerous branches displayed like a fan ; the 

 branches of a linear -lanceolate outline, bi-tripinnate ; the lower pinnae short, 

 gradually lengthening upwards, generally producing two pinnules from the 

 upper side (one of which is axillary), before one issues from the lower, 

 erecto-patent. Slrice evident in the lower part of the stem, and in old spe- 

 cimens throughout: less obvious in young plants and in the young shoots 

 or branches. Specimens sometimes occur, many of whose branches are as 

 bare of ramuli as those of .S'. scoparia in its denuded state, and then they 

 can only be recognised by their greater delicacy. 



2. S. Sertiilaria, Bonnem. ; frond slightly shaggy at the 

 base, weak and slender, irregularly branched ; branches 

 somewhat lanceolate or linear, horizontally patent, tripinnate ; 

 pinnaj alternate, divaricate; pinnules very patent, multifid ; 

 axils all very obtuse and wide. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 

 cxliii. S. Jilicina ^.patens, Harv. Man. \st. ed. p. 37. 



Parasitical on various Algse, at a depth of from four to fifteen fathoms. 

 Perennial. Very rare. Souih shores of England, Jersey, and the North 

 and West of Ireland. — A smaller and slenderer plant than S.filicina, with 

 very patent branches and ramuli. 



3. S. scoparia, L. ; dark brown, coarse, the lower part 

 shaggy with woolly fibres ; upper branches once or twice 

 pinnated ; the pinnae erecto-patent, awl-shaped, alternate, 



