Ser. Melanospebme.*. Fam. Dictyoterv. 



Plate LXXII. 



ASPEROCOCCUS COMPRESSUS, Griff. 



Gen. Char. Frond, unbranched, tubular, cylindrical, or rarely compressed, 

 continuous, membranaceous. Root naked, scutate. Fructification 

 scattered over the whole frond, in minute distinct dots (sori), composed 

 of roundish, prominent spores, mixed with club-shaped filaments. 

 Asperococcus, — corruptly formed from asper, rough, and kokkos, a 

 seed. 



Asperococcus compresses ; frond compressed, flat, linear-lanceolate, obtuse ; 

 dots of fructification oblong. 



Asperococcus compressus, Griff. MSS. Hook. Br. Fl. vol. h. p. 278. Wyatt, 

 Alg. Damn. no. 8. Harv. Man. p. 34. J. Ag. Alg. Medit. p. 41. Menegh. 

 Alg. Hal. p. 164. t. 4. f. 1. Endl. 2>rd Suppl. p. 26. 



Haloglossum Griffithsianum, Kiltz. Phyc. Gen. p. 340. 



Hab. Parasitical on Algae, beyond low water mark ; usually cast on shore. 

 Annual. Summer. Sidmouth and Torquay, Mrs. Griffiths. Mounts 

 Bay, Mr. Ralfs. Falmouth, Miss Warren. Jersey, Miss Turner. 



Geogr. Distr. Southern shores of England. Mediterranean Sea. Cherbourg. 

 Cape Finisterre. Cape of Good Hope, W. H. H. 



Descr. Root, a small disc. Frond, from six to eighteen inches in length, and 

 from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half in breadth, attenuated at 

 the base into a setaceous stem from a quarter to half an inch long, thence 

 nearly linear upwards for the greater portion of its length, and again fining 

 off towards the blunt point. Some specimens are nearly lanceolate, and 

 much narrowed at the extremity ; others are more nearly linear, and very 

 blunt. The frond, though very much compressed, so as to be quite flat, is 

 in reality tubular, but the sides of the tube are closely applied together, 

 and here and there united by slender, colourless, jointed filaments. The 

 surface cellules of the frond are minute ; but those coating the inner face 

 of the tube are very large, distended, and hyaline. Fructification is always 

 abundantly produced. The sori are oblong, very densely scattered, and of 

 larger size than in A. Turneri. The Colour varies from a pale yellowish to a 

 full olive-green, occasionally brownish in age. The substance is tender, 

 somewhat gelatinous, and the plant in drying, adheres perfect ly to paper. 



An interesting plant, curiously connecting the genus Aspero- 

 coccus and Punc ia rid, having a frond nearly intermediate in cha- 

 racter between that of these genera, but possessing rather more 

 of the structure of the former. It was discovered by Mrs. 

 Griffiths in the war 1828, tit Sidmouth, and should it ever be 



t 2 



