56 COMMON SEAWEEDS. 



Generic character. — The frond tubular, constricted 

 strongly throughout as if jointed, much branched, 

 tufted at the tips of the main branches. 



The constrictions are full of watery fluid ; colour 

 pale red or purple ; and the plant varies in size from 

 one inch to six or eight inches long, sometimes even 

 twelve inches long, when cast up from deep water. 



Fructification of Chylocladia : ceramidia either sphe- 

 rical, oval, or conical. — On this species the spore- 

 cases are transparent, conical, opening by a minute 

 pore, and enclosing many crimson seeds. Tetraspores 

 are the most common hind of fruit, immersed in the 

 stem, and giving a dotted appearance to the joints. 



Chylocladia Kalyeoioiis (Salt- wort Chylocla- 

 dia). — This is a beautiful specimen for the album. It 

 dries well on paper, though staining it a bright red 

 from the rupture of its tubular branches. The colour 

 is often greenish and yellowish in the stem ; and when 

 growing in shallow tide-pools, exposed to a bright sun, 

 it is quite yellow. It grows at various depths and in 

 different situations, on rocks or on sand, as may be. 

 The fronds are frequently twelve, or even twenty 

 inches long, with spreading branches and bead-like 

 joints. The fruit is a round berry without obvious 

 pore, and with a wide transparent margin, containing 

 many crimson pear-shaped spores : this alone would 

 decide the species. Tetraspores are scattered thickly 

 in the joints of the ramuli or lesser branches. In 

 both these particulars, compared with Chylocladia 

 Articulata, the distinction is obvious. 



Pound from June to August, all round our coasts. 



