See. MELANOSPERME.E. 



(143) 



Fam. chorda lilEiE. 



MYEIONEMA CLAY ATVM.~ JIarv. 



Gen, Char.— Fronds formed of two strata of articulated filaments : 1, forming a thin 

 stratum, creeping and cohering; 2, erect, simple. Fructification, consisting of 

 obovate spores, attached either to the erect or creeping filaments. Name from 

 fivplos, "a myriad," and vfi/xa, "a thread," in allusion to the multitude of 

 minute filaments of which the plants are composed. 



Myrionbma clavahim. — " Very minute, rather convex ; filaments 

 clavate, mostly bifid ; spores obovate, pedicellate, affixed to the fila- 

 ments." — Phi/c. Brit. 



Myrionema clavatum. — Harv. in Hook. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 391 ; Harv. P. B. 



plate 348; Harv. Man. p. 51; Harv. Syn. p, 48; Atlas, plate 18, 



fig. 75 ; Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 540 ; /. O. Agardh, Sp. Gen. Alg, voL i. p. 50. 



LiNKiA clavata. — Carm. Alg. App. ined. cum ic. 



Hab. — On a thin purple cartilaginous crust, probably a Verriicaria, which covers 



the pebbles at half- tide level. Autumn. Appin (Cap*. Carmichael), who adds, "The 



parasite is so much of the colour of the crust, it requires a microscope to detect it." 



{Phyc. Brit.) 



Geogr. Dist. ? 



Of this pretty little parasite we know nothing except what is given in 

 Fhj/c. Brit, and in Hooker's Brit. Fl, on the authority of Captain 

 Carmichael, who alone seems to have observed the plant ; and we are not 

 aware if specimens of it exist in any herbarium, nor are we informed of 

 the nature of the crust on which it was found. 



myrionema clavatum. 



EXPLANATION OF DISSECTIONS, &c. 



Pig, 1. — Myrionema clavatum, on a quartz pebble, natural size. 

 2. — Filaments, magnified. 

 3. — The same, more magnified, 



