See. MELANOSPERME^. ( 149 ) Fam. ECTOCARPE^. 



Plate CLXXI. 

 SPHACELARIA FILICINA.— ^^. 



Gen. Char. — Fronds filiform, articulated, dictotomously branched; apices of the branches 

 generally more or less distended, as if the apical cell was enlarged and inflated, 

 containing in its centre a dark granular mass of endochrome. Fructification : 

 "elliptical utricles (or spores), furnished with a limbus, borne on the ramuli." 

 Name from (T<pdK€Aos, "a gangrene," in allusion to the withered, diseased-like 

 apices of the branches, very characteristic in some of the species. 



Sphacelaria Jilicina. — Frond filiform, slender, clothed at the base 

 with slender bushy fibres, in-egularly pinnate ; pinnee again pinnate or 

 bipinnate, erecto-patent ; pinniilte erect, all alternate. 



Sphacelaria ^^jcmct.— 4^. Syst. p. 166; Arj. Sp. Ahj, vol. ii. p. 22; Mont. 

 Crypt. Alg. No. 24 ; Menegh. Alg. Ital. et Balm. p. 324 ; /. Ag. Alg. 

 Medit. p. 30 ; Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 23 ; Mont. Fl. Alg. p. 41 ; Wyatt, 

 Alg. Danm. No. 170 ; Harv. in Hook. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 323 ; 

 Harv. P. B. plate 142 ; Harv. Man. p. 55 ; Harv. Syn. p. 49 ; Atlas 

 plate 17, fig. 72; /. G. Agardli, Sp. Gen. Alg. vol. i. p, 38. 



Sphacelaria hypnoides. — Grev. Scot. Crypt. Fl. t. 348. 



Sphacelaria simpliciuscula. — Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 31, 



Halopteris filicina. — Kiitz. Phyc. Gen. p. 292. 



Ceramium filicinuin. — Gratel. Journ. Med. vol. iv. p. 33. 



Hab. — On rocks and nullipores near low-water mark, and at the roots of Laminarite^ 

 &c. Rare. Perennial. Fruiting in winter. Several places in the south of England ; 

 Jersey ; Belfast Bay {Mr. W. Thompson) ; Youghal {Miss Ball) ; Kinsale Harbour 

 {Dr. Harvey). 



Geogr. Dist, — Atlantic shores of France and Spain ; Mediterranean Sea. 



Description. — Frond having the lower part covered with shaggy 

 fibres, irregularly pinnate ; pinnae often fasciculate, again bipinnate or 

 even tripinnate, pinnules erecto-patent, the middle ones longest, giving 

 the divisions a lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate outline ; frequently the 

 outline is broken by a branch becoming more elongated than the rest, 

 whilst the main stems and branches are often partially denuded of their 

 pinnae, and are more or less naked. Pinnse and pinnulaj alternate, one 

 arising from every third or fourth articulation ; ultimate pinnules gene- 

 rally more erect, subulate, slightly incurved. Articulations about half 

 as long as broad, longitudinally striate, especially when old. Fructi- 

 fication produced on the young pinnules while yet simple, a single 

 obovate spore forming in the axil of the pinnule. Structiu-c consisting of 



