128 SPH^EROCOCCUS. GRACILARIA. 



fresh from the sea or after having been dried, but is sometimes cooked. 

 That is preferred which grows on rocks near low-water mark, being shorter, 

 sweeter, and less leathery than the larger varieties ; this is frequently co- 

 vered with young mussel-shells, whence it is called by the hawkers " Shell- 

 dillisk." Cattle, especially sheep, are fond of it ; whence it has been called 

 Fucus ovinus by Bishop Gunner. 



III. SPH.EROCOCCUS. Stack. [Plate 16, B.] 



Frond cartilaginous, compressed, two-edged, linear, disti- 

 chously branched, with an internal rib, cellular; central cells 

 fibrous ; medial polygonal ; those of the periphery minute, 

 disposed in horizontal filaments. Fructification, spherical 

 tubercles (coccidia) having a thick fibro-cellular pericarp, 

 and containing a mass of minute spores on a central placenta. 

 Name, aQaipa, a sphere, or globe, and *O*KOJ, fruit. 



1. S. coronopifolius, Good, and Woodw. ; frond cartilagi- 

 nous, much branched in a distichous and alternate manner, 

 compressed and two-edged below, nearly flat above ; the 

 branches acute; capsules spherical, mucronate, on little stalks, 

 fringing the smaller branches. Grev. Alg. Brit. p. 138, t. 

 15 ; Hook. Br. FL ii. p. 304; Wyalt, Alg. Danm. No. 122 ; 

 Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. Ixi. Fucus coronopifolius, E. Bot. t. 

 1478. 



On rocky shores, near low- water mark, and beyond the tidal limit. Bi- 

 ennial. Summer and autumn. Not uncommon on the southern shores of 

 England, and the western and southern shores of Ireland. Belfast, Mr. 

 Templeton. Very rare in Scotland. Bute, Dr. Greville. Fronds 612 

 inches long or more, very much branched, distichous; the main stems 

 compressed, two-edged, thickened in the centre, two lines broad, becoming 

 narrower and flatter upwards, irregularly divided in a manner between 

 dichototnous and alternate, the upper branches once or twice forked, the 

 segments set with close, alternate branches, which often bear a second 

 series, or branched in a regularly alternate manner; the branches all 

 spreading, giving the plant a fan-like outline ; the margin of the upper 

 branches generally fringed with minute, ciliary processes, about half a line 

 in length, in some of which capsules are imbedded. Tubercles spherical, 

 imbedded in the cilia below the tip, which is slightly produced beyond 

 them and bent, forming " an oblique mucro" to the capsules, the whole 

 not unlike the head of a bird. Colour a fine scarlet-red, darker in the 

 main stem. Substance cartilaginous, becoming horny in a dry state, and 

 imperfectly adhering to paper under pressure. 



IV. GRACILARIA. Grev. [Plate 16, C.] 



Frond filiform, or rarely flat, carnoso-cartilaginous, conti- 

 nuous, cellular; the central cells large, empty, or full of 



