See. MELANOSPERME^. ( 131 ) Fam. CHORDARIE.E. 



ELACHISTA SCUTULATA.— i)«7-//. 



Gen. Char.— Fronds consisting of a more or less evident tubercular base, composed of 

 ovate cells an-anged in the form of mostly dichotomous filaments, densely packed, 

 terminating in free, simple filaments, forming a brush -like tuft. Fructification : 

 obovate spores, produced at the base of the simple filaments, and often accom- 

 panied by tufts of short, clavate ' ' paranemata. " Name from eAaxio-ra, ' ' the 

 least, " in allusion to the small size of the species. 



Elachista scutulata. — Tubercle roundish oblong, rather large, com- 

 posed of densely packed, dichotomously branched filaments, consisting 

 of oblong, subcylindrical cells, contracted at the dissepiment ; filaments 

 rather short, their articulations cylindrical, about two and a half times 

 as long as broad. 



Elachista scutulata. — Duly, Bot. Gall. vol. ii. p. 972; Harv. P. B. plate 333 ; 

 Harv. Man. p. 50 ; Harv. Syn. p. 45 ; Atlas, plate 16, fig. 65 ; 

 Klltz. Syst. Alg. p. 540; /. G. Agardh, Sp. Gen. Alg. vol. i. p. 11. 



Conferva scutulata. — Eng. Bot. t. 2311 ; Earv. in HooTc. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 355 ; 

 Ifarv. in Mack. Fl. Hih. part 3, p. 227 ; Harv. Man. 1st edit. p. 132; 

 Wyatt, Alg. Banm. No. 223. 



Hab. — Parasitical on Himanthalia lorea. Annual. Summer and autumn. Common. 



Geogr. Dist. — Shores of Europe. 



Description. — Tubercle rather large, oblong oval, and frequently 

 entirely surrounding the stem on which it grows, extending for the 

 distance of an inch or more over the sm-face, and having a thickness of 

 from three to fom' lines, composed of filaments whose cells are oblong, 

 three to four times longer than their diameter, often obliquely constricted 

 at the dissepiments, hyaline, the iiltimate divisions tipped with tufts of 

 few, short, cylindrical filaments (paranemata), accompanied by long, 

 slender, cylindi-ical filaments, with obtuse apices, their cells cylindrical, 

 not constricted at the dissepiments, two to three times as long as broad. 

 Fructification : obovato-oblong spores, which, with their pedicel, are about 

 two-thu'ds of the length of the paranemata. The filaments and paranemata 

 are generally abraded from the older or central portion of the patch or 

 tubercle, the younger part near the margin being only in general 

 furnished with them. Substance cartilagineo-membranaceous, exter- 

 nally soft and lubricous, and adhering closely to paper. 



This veiy pretty species is almost as common as the plant to which its 



