1 8 HANDBOOK OF SEA- WE EDS. 



siphonia and Dasya contain the finest of the filiform division ; 

 the leafy one, Odonthalia, a northern form, is a very beautiful 

 sea-weed both as respects form and colour. Well-grown speci- 

 mens are not unlike a hawthorn twig, and of a blood red colour. 



The plants of the sub-order Melanospermeae, are, like the red 

 sea-weeds, exclusively marine. They are usually large and 

 coarse, and confined mostly to comparatively shallow water. In 

 the Laminariacese we find the gigantic oarweeds already briefly 

 referred to. Lessonia, which encircles in submarine forests the 

 antarctic coasts, is an erect, tree-like plant, with a trunk from 

 five to ten feet high, forked branches, and drooping leaves, one 

 to three feet in length, and has been compared to a weeping 

 willow. Sir Joseph Hooker says, that from a boat there may 

 on a calm day be witnessed in the antarctic regions, over these 

 submarine groves, "as busy a scene as is presented by the coral 

 reefs of the ti'opics. The leaves of the Lessonise are crowded 

 with Sertularise and Mollusca, or encircled with Flustra ; on the 

 trunks parasitic Algae abound, together with chitons, limpets, 

 and other shells ; at the base and among the tangled roots 

 swarm thousands of Crustacese and Radiata, while fish of 

 several species dart among the leaves and branches." Of these 

 and other gigantic melanosperms, flung ashore by the waves, a 

 belt of decaying vegetable matter is formed, miles in extent, 

 some yards broad, and three feet in depth ; and Sir J. Hooker 

 adds that the trunks of Lessonia so much resemble driftwood 

 that no persuasion could prevent an ignorant shipmaster from 

 employing his crew, during two bitterly cold days, in collecting 

 this incombustible material for fuel. Macrocystis and Nereo- 

 cystis are also giant members of this sub-order. Some of the 

 Laminarise which form a belt around our own coasts not sel- 

 dom attain a length of from eight to twelve feet. The common 

 bladder-wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) sometimes grows in Jut- 

 land to a height of ten feet, and in clusters several feet in dia- 

 meter. The colour of most of the plants in this sub-order is 

 some shade of olive, but several of them turn to green in 

 drying. 



The first group, Ectocarpese, is composed of thread-like 

 jointed plants, the fructification of which consists of external 

 spores, sometimes formed by the swelling of a branchlet. The 

 typical genus, Ectocarpus, abounds in species, a dozen or so of 

 which, very nearly allied plants, being found around our own 

 shores. One or two of them are very handsome. There 

 are also some very beautiful plants in the genus Sphacelaria, 

 belonging to this group, several of them resembling miniature 



