202 CRYPTONEMIACE^. v, 



Plate XXIX. B. Fu]. 1, C atenell a pmnato; the natural size. Fig. 2, part of a 

 frond, magnified. Fig. 3, transverse section, and/^. 4, longitudinal semi-section of 

 an internode ; highly magnified. 



XXIV. GLOIOSIPHONIA. Carm. 



Frond terete, gelatinous, decompoundly much branched ; axis composed of a 

 column of densely interwoven, longitudinal, articulated filaments, at length hollow 

 and tubular ; periphery of verticillate, moniliform, dichotomous, fastigiate, densely 

 packed filaments, set in gelatine. Nuclei {favelke) immersed beneath the peripheric 

 filaments, simple, containing, within a gelatinous envelope, numerous roundish 

 spores. Tetraspores unknown. 



This genus at present contains but a single species, a native also of the Atlantic 

 Coasts of Europe. It is a brilliant carmine, very much branched, filiform plant, of 

 a very tender gelatinous substance, and wholly composed of articulated, confervoid 

 filaments, invested with transparent gelatine. A cross section of one of the young- 

 est ramuli shows a solitary axial longitudinal filament, from which four verticillate, 

 horizontal, dichotomous, fastigiate, moniliform branches issue, whose apices, closely 

 pressed together and united by gelatine, constitute the periphery of the branchlet. 

 An older branchlet, similarly treated, shows a solid columnar axis formed of the 

 union of several filaments, from wliich spring a proportionably larger number of 

 verticillate peripheric strings of cells. As older branches are successively subjected 

 to the lens, the axis is seen to be more developed, until it results in a vast number 

 of interlaced, anastomosing and branching longitudinal filaments densely packed 

 together. Finally, either from distension, or the perishing of the central cells, the 

 axis becomes hollow in the centre. Favellce are generally very abundantly scattered 

 through the branches. They are wholly immersed, and appear to be attached to 

 the lower branches of the peripheric filaments, Tetraspores are unknown. 



1. Gloiosiphonia capillaris, Curm.— J. Ag. Sp. Alg. 2, p. 161. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 

 714. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 57. Fucus capillaris. Turn. Hist. 31. E. Bot. t. 2191. 



Hab. Nahant, Mrs. Mudge. Hampton Beach, Br. Durkee. Chelsea, Miss E. H. 

 Brewer. New London, Miss French, (v. s. in Herb. T. C D.) 



Frond 4 — 6 inches long, 1 — 2 lines in diameter, the older parts hollow and 

 tubular, the younger filled with longitudinal threads, excessively and irregularly 

 branched ; the branches spreading towards all sides. Main stem sub-simple, terete. 



