Ser. MELANOSPEKMEiE. ( 155 ) Fam. ECTOCARPEiE. 



Plate CLXXIIL 

 SPHACELARIA TLV^IOS A.— Lymjh. 



Gen. Char. — Fronds filiform, articulated, dichotomonsly hranclied ; apices of the branches 

 generally more or less distended, as if tbe 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 acpaKeXos, "a gangrene," in allusion to the withered, diseased-like 

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



Sphacelaria j}lumosa.— Fronds slender ; stems not jointed, mnch and 

 irregularly branched, especially upwards ; branches pectinato-pinnate, 

 with very long, slender, opposite pinnae from each joint. 



Sphacelaria plumosa. — Lyngh. Fl. Dan. p. 103, t. 30 ; Ag. Sysf. p. 166 ; Ag. S2X A Ig. 

 vol. ii. p. 24; Grev. Fl. Edin. p. 313 ; Wyatt, Alg. JJanm. No. 300 ; 

 Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 23; Harv. in ffooJc. Brit. Fl. vol. ii. p. 321; 

 Harv. in Mack. Fl. Hih. part 3, p. 180 ; Harv. P. B. plate 87 ; 

 Harv. Man. p. 5Q ; Harv. Syn. p. 50 ; Atlas, plate 17, fig. 73. 



CH.ETOPTERIS plumosus. — Kutz. Phyc. Gen. p. 293 ; /. G. Agardk, Sp. Gen. Alg. 

 vol. i. p. 41. 



Ceramium pennatum. — Fl. Dan. t. 1481 ; Roth, Cat. Bot. vol. iii. p. 133 ; 

 Ag. Syn. p. 68. 



Conferva pennata.— E. Bot. t. 2330 (left-hand figure). 



Hab. — On rocks and stones near low -•water mark to four and five fathoms. Perennial. 

 Not uncommon, 



Geogr. Dist. — German Ocean, along the shores of Denmark and Norway ; Baltic Sea ; 

 Greenland {Fahrlcius). 



Description. — Root, a minute disc. Fronds much tufted, rather 

 slender, two to four inches or more in length, irregiilarly branched, 

 especially upwards, the base of the stem, as well as the branches, being 

 naked for a short distance. Branches generally distant, but sometimes, 

 towards the summit, more or less fascicled, especially when the plant has 

 been broken or injured. All the branches very closely pectinate throngli- 

 out ; the pinnse generally longest near the apex, often veiy short at 

 the base, giving the branch an oblong-lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate 

 appearance in the outline, opposite, arising from every joint, or when 

 again pinnate, as they occasionally are in their upper half, only from 

 every other joint, when they are less closely pectinate. Articulations 

 scarcely so long as broad, making the pinnre very close, in which they 



