HANDBOOK OF SEA- WEEDS. 15 



Algos, and pretty frequent in shady rock pools. Gloiosiphonia 

 capillaris is a remarkably beautiful plant, and not common, 

 being confined to certain parts of the southern coasts. The 

 stem is very soft and gelatinous ; the spores are produced in red 

 globular masses imbedded in the marginal filaments, which have 

 a fine appearance under the microscope when fresh. 



The Rhodomeniaceas are purplish or blood-red sea-weeds, 

 inarticulate, membranaceous, and cellular. Among the dark- 

 coloured is Rhodomenia palmata, better known as dulse, a 

 common and edible species. (Fig. 7.) Wormskioldia sanguinea 

 is not only the most beautiful sea-weed, but the finest of all 



Fig. 9. Ptilota plumosa. 



leaves or fronds. It is usually about six inches long, but some- 

 times nearly double that length and six inches broad, with a 

 distinct midrib and branching veins, and a delicate wavy lamina, 

 pink or deep red. The fruit is produced in winter from small 

 leaflets growing upon the bare midrib. (Fig. 8.) The com- 

 monest of all red seaweeds on our coast, one of the most elegant, 

 and much sought after by sea- weed picture makers, Plocamium 

 coccineum, belongs to this group. Calliblepharis ciliata and 

 jubata are coarser plants, the latter being the more frequent. 

 They were formerly included in the genus Rhodymenia, from 

 which they were removed when their fruit was better understood. 

 Wrangelia and Naccaria are the only British genera in 



