Skk. GONGYLOSPERME.E. (81) Fam. SrYRIDIACEJ;. 



Plate XCVIII. 

 SPYRIDIA FILAMENTOSA.-iJf/rr. 



Gen. CnAU.^Frond cellular, filiform, cylindrical, tubular, articulated, much branched ; 

 branches beset with simple articulated setaceous ramuli. Fructification of two 

 kinds, on distinct plants : 1. Stalked favellie, two to three lobed, and furnished 

 witli several short setaceous involucral leaves at the base; 2. Tetraspores, tri- 

 parted, sessile on the ramuli. Name from <r7ri;p2s, "a basket." 



SPYHiBiA Ji!a?nentosa. — Frond much and irregularly branched ; branches 

 tapering to the base and apex, everywhere beset with short setaceous or 

 somewhat club-shaped rami;li ; joints of the stem much shorter, of the 

 ramuli rather longer than broad. 



Sptridia filamentosa.—IIarv. in Hooh. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 337; Wyatt, Alg. Damn. 

 No. 88 ; /. Ag. Alg. Medit. p. 79 ; Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 35 ; Kiitz. 

 Phyc. Gen. p. 376, t. 48 ; Mont. PL Cell. Canar. p. 174 ; Ilarv. P. B. 

 plate 46; Harv. Man. p. 166; Harv. Syn. p. 137; Atlas, plate 53, 

 fig. 244 ; Harv. N. B. A. part 2, p. 204. 



Sptridia crassiuscula. — Kiitz. Phyc. Gen. p. 376. 



Sptridia setacea. — Kiitz. 1. c. 



Sptridia mediuscula. — Kiitz. 1. c. 



Fuctrs filamentosus. — Wulf. Cr. Ag. p. 64. 



Facus friabilis. — Clem. Kss. p. 318. 



Ceramiuai filamentosum. — Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 141. 



HuTOHiNSiA filamentosa. — Ag. Syst. p. 159. 



Conferva Grijithsiana. — E. Bot. t. 2312. 



Hab.— On rocks, near low-water mark. Perennial. Summer. Not uncommon along 

 the southern shores of England ; Aberfraw, Anglesea ; Jersey. Unknown on the Scotti&h 

 and Irish shores. 



Geogr. Dist. — Atlantic coasts of Europe ; Mediterranean Sea, abundant ; East and 

 "West Indies ; Canary Islands ; Australia ; Tasmania. 



Description. — Root, a large common disc, from which the stems are 

 numerous, cylindrical, filiform, tubular and jointed, three to six or 

 eight inches long, and nearly half a line in diameter below, gradually 

 tapering to the apex, much branched very irregularly, sometimes alter- 

 nate, sometimes opposite, at one time dichotomous, at another fastigiate, 

 and these branches again three to four times similarly divided ; the 

 stem and lower bi'anches or their lower portions being naked, but all 



VOL. II. M 



