218 BRITISH SEA-WEEDS. [Bkodospermea. 



Britaunicse/ to which we have been so much indebted, and 

 where there is a fine iigure of it : *' It has successively held 

 the title of JJlva, Fnciis, Rivularia, Gigartina, Clionchia, 

 llalymenia, Lomentaria, and, lastly, mirabile dictu, of Chon- 

 dria in SprengeFs ' Systema Yegetalium/ I have endea- 

 voured, — not, I think, without sufficient cause, — to afford 

 this almost universal trespasser something more like a 

 ' local habitation and a name/ '^ Its tetraspores were dis- 

 covered by Professor J. Agardh, and both kinds of fruit 

 have been detected by the keenly-scrutinizing eye of Mrs. 

 Griffiths. It owes its specific name to its resemblance to 

 the jointed leaves of Cactus Ojmntia. 



Family X. SPONGIOCAIIPE.E. 



" He looks abroad into the varied field 

 Of Nature, and, though poor, perhaps, compared 

 With those whose mansions glitter in his sight. 

 Calls the delightful scenery all his own. 

 His are the mountains, and the valleys his, 

 His the resplendent rivers." — Coicper. 



Genus LII. POLYIDES, Agardh. 



Gen. Char. Frond cartilaginous, filiform, cylindrical. Fruc- 

 tification, naked, spongy warts, of radiating filaments, among 



