CRYPTONEMIACE,E. 131 



Name, an alteration of Hypnum, the name of a well- 

 known genus of mosses, in allusion to the mossy habit 

 of some of the original species. The type of the genus is 

 Fucus musciformis of Wulfen. 



1. H. purpurascens, Huds. ; frond cylindrical, filiform, 

 bushy, excessively and irregularly branched ; ramuli seta- 

 ceous, acute, scattered, containing immersed spherical tuber- 

 cles. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. cxvi. Gracilaria purpurascens, 

 Grev. Alg. Brit. p. 122 ; Hook. Br. Fl. ii. p. 299 ; Wyatt, 

 Alg. Damn. No. 74, Fucus purpurascens, E. Bot. t. 1243. 

 Cystoclonium purpurascens, Kutz. 



On rocks, stones and Algae between tide-marks ; very common. Annual. 

 Summer. Root fibrous ; frond 6 inches to 2 feet high, about a line in dia- 

 meter ; stem generally undivided, naked below, but after the height of 1 

 or 2 inches, thickly clothed with alternate, patent branches, which are 

 either simple or forked, and in turn bear a third or fourth set, the branches 

 and ramuli exceedingly variable in length ; the whole plant with a bushy 

 character. Tubercles immersed in the ramuli ; tetraspores imbedded in 

 the lesser branches of distinct plants. Colour a pale purplish pink, be- 

 coming blackish in drying. Substance cartilaginous, imperfectly adhering 

 to paper. 



ORDER XII. CRYPTONEMIACE^. 



Cryptonemiese, J. Ag. Alg. Medit. p. 81. Endl. 3d Suppl. 

 p. 36. Dne. Class, p. 63. Also Furcellariese, and part of 

 Chondrieee, Sphaerococcoidese and Gasterocarpeae, Id. pp. 

 6465. 



DIAGNOSIS. Purplish or rose-red sea- weeds, with a filiform 

 or (rarely) expanded, gelatinous or cartilaginous frond, com- 

 posed, wholly or in part, of cylindrical cells connected toge- 

 ther into filaments. Axis formed of vertical, periphery of 

 horizontally radiating filaments. Fructification, 1, Concep- 

 tacles (favellidia,} globose masses of spores immersed in the 

 frond or in swellings of the branches. 2, tetraspores vari- 

 ously dispersed. 



NATURAL CHARACTER. Root seldom much developed, 

 most frequently discoid ; in some cases (as in Furcellaria] 

 composed of many clasping and creeping fibres. Frond 

 differing much in external appearance, and in colour and 



K 2 



