Ser. MelanospermejE. Fam. Dictyotea. 



Plate CCXXXVII. 



STILOPHORA LYNGBY.EI, J.Ag. 



Gen. Char. Root a small, naked disc. Frond filiform, solid or tubular, 

 branched. Fructification, convex, wart-like sori scattered over the 

 surface, composed of obovate spores nestling among moniliform, 

 vertical filaments. Stilophora {J.Ag.) — from otCKt), a point or dot, 

 and (popea, to hear ; in allusion to the dot-like fructification. 



Stilophora Lyngbyai ; frond tubular, at length distended, much branched, 

 the branches dichotomous, spreading, with wide, rounded axils, much 

 attenuated toward the apices ; ramuli scattered, forked, capillary • sori 

 subdistant, disposed in transverse lines. 



Stilophora Lyngbysei, /. Ag. Sy?nb.\o\. i. p. 6. Sp. Alg. vol. i. p. 84. Endl. 

 3rd Suppl. p. 26. 



Scytosiphon paradoxus. Ft. Ban. t. 1595. f. 2. 



Spermatochnus paradoxus, Kiitz. Phyc. Gen. p. 335. 



Chordaria paradoxa, Lyngb. Hyd. Dan. p. 53. 1. 14. 



Striaria Grevilleana, Follexf. MS. 



Sporochnus rhizodes /3 paradoxa, Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. i. p. 157. Grev. Alg. 

 Brit. p. 43. Hook. Br. Fl. vol. h. p. 275. Harv. Man. p. 27. 



Hab. In land-locked bays, and estuaries, on a muddy and sandy bottom, 

 in 4-10 fathom water. Annual. Summer. Several places on the 

 shores of Scotland and Ireland, abundantly. 



Geogr. Distr. Baltic Sea. Atlantic Coasts of Europe. Mediterranean Sea. 



Descr. Root, a small disc. Fronds from two to four or six feet in length, from 

 one to two lines in diameter at their widest part, but tapering to a capillary 

 fineness towards the apices, usually tufted, and sometimes covering the 

 ground in continuous patches that spread over several square yards. Stem 

 very much branched in a dichotomous manner, becoming irregular by the 

 occasional suppression of one of the arms of the fork ; the divisions widely 

 spreading, with very broad, rounded axils ; the forks distant below, gra- 

 dually nearer towards the apex. The lower part of the stem becomes, in 

 age, much distended, with a wide cavity and thin walls, the whole of the 

 central cellular substance dying out; in younger parts it is more solid. 

 Warts of fructification more distant than in S. rhizodes, and placed in trans- 

 verse, slightly spiral bands, containing obovate spores attached to club- 

 shaped paranemata. Colour a pale, testaceous brown, olive toward the tips 

 and becoming greener in drying, especially after the specimen has been 

 steeped in fresh water. Substance when recent crisp, and vcrv brittle* 

 Boon becoming flaccid and somewhat tough, <;i\in^ out mucus. It cloeeh 

 adheres to paper. 



