230 SEAWEEDS 
the carpospore, the early stages of which may be 
seen represented in Fig. 73. 
The Geographical Distribution of the family is a 
wide one throughout both the north and south 
temperate zones and the tropical belt. Representa- 
tives penetrate also into the colder waters. Rhody- 
menta, Cordylecladia, Lomentaria, Champia, Chylocla- 
dia and Plocamium are all British and for the most 
part abundant on our shores. 
Delesserice. 
This family includes a number cf the most 
beautiful red seaweeds, if indeed they are not the 
most beautiful of all Alge. They possess leaf-like 
fronds, some of them with midribs (Delesseria) others 
with delicate lace-like or net-like expansions (Claudea, 
Martensia, Vanvoorstia, genera formerly reckoned 
among the Rhodomelew) and are all notable for their 
conspicuous and graceful forms. Mitophyllwm and its 
immediate allies (see p. 202) differ from most other 
Rhodophyceee in the occurrence of subsequent interca- 
lary divisions of the thallus filaments. The procarpia 
are situated in the middle layer of the fronds, and the 
gonimoblast produces the carpospores within a fruit 
cavity formed of the thickened cortical layer of the 
thallus, perforated in the centre for the escape of the 
spores. The gonimoblast is somewhat indistinctly 
divided into several lobes, formed simultaneously or 
in succession, which bear the carpospores singly or in 
series terminally, or more rarely almost all the cells 
form spores, 
