236 BRITISH SEA-"WEEDS. \Rho(losperwecc. 



For good figures, see 'Alg?e Britannicgc/ PI. xvi., and 



Plivcologia Britaimica/ PI. c. 



Tamily XIII. SPH^EOCOCCOIDE.E. 



" oil ! what an endlcsse work bave I in hand. 

 To count the sea's abundant progeny ! 

 Whose fruitfiJ seedc farre passcth those in laud, 

 And also those which woune in the azure sky : 

 And much more eath to tell the starres on by, 

 Albe they endlesse seeme in estimation. 

 Than to recount the sea's posterity, 

 So fertile be the flouds in gcucration. 

 So huge their numbers and so nuniberlesse their nation." 



Spenser's Faery Queene. 



Genus LXYI. HYPXEA, Lamonr. 



den. Char. Frond filiform, cartilaginous, continuous, much 

 branched, cellular ; with a dense, more or less evident fibro-cel- 

 lular axis, surrounded by several rows of angular cells, the inner- 

 most of which are largest, the outer gradually smaller to the 

 circumference. Fructification of two kinds, on distinct indivi- 

 duals : 1, spherical tubercles (coccidia) sessile, or immersed in 

 the ramuli, containing a mass of small spores on a central pla- 

 centa ; 2, transversely parted tctraspores imbedded in the cells 

 of the surface. — TT^jpnea, an alteration of Ihjpnum^ the nam» 



