Ser. MelanospermejE. Fam. Eelocarpea. 



Plate CXXXVIII. 



CLADOSTEPHUS SPONGIOSUS, 4* 



Gen. Char. Fronds inarticulate, rigid, cellular, whorled with short, jointed, 

 subsimple ramuli. Fructification-, ellipticle utricles, furnished with 

 a limbus, pedicellate, borne on accessory ramuli. Cladostephus 

 (Ag.), — Kkabos, a branch, and a-rec^os, a crown. 



Cladostephus spongiosus; branches thick and clumsy; ramuli mostly 

 simple, sometimes forked, irregularly whorled and densely imbricated. 



Cladostephus spongiosus, Ag. Syst. p. 168. Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. h. p. 12. 

 Harv. in Hook. Br. Fl. vol. ii. 322. Harv. in Mack. Fl. Hib. part 3. p. 180. 

 Harv. Man. p. 36. Wyatt, Alg. Danm. no. 169. J. Ag. Alg. Medit. 

 p. 30. Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 24. 



Cladostephus laxus, Fl. Ban. t. 1955. f. 3. (?) excl. syn. 



Conferva spongiosa, Ends. Fl. Ang. p. 596. LigJdf. Fl. Scot. p. 983. 



With. vol. iv. p. 132. Billw. Conf. t. 42. E. Bot. t. 2427. fig. 1. 

 Fucus hirsutus, Linn. Mant. p. 134. FJsper, t. 28. 



Hah. On rocks and stones in the sea, between tide marks, and at a greater 

 depth. Perennial. Winter. Common on the shores of the British 

 Islands. 



Geogr. Distr. Atlantic shores of Europe and North America. Mediterranean 

 Sea. Cape Horn, Br. Hooker. 



Descr. Root discoid. Fronds from three to four inches high, thicker than 

 bristle, irregularly branched, or somewhat dichotomous, the branches 

 flexuous, patent, thickened here and there, more or less divided, and 

 densely clothed throughout with short jointed setaceous ramelli. Ramelli 

 from half a line to a line in length, incurved, simple, or with a forked point, 

 attenuated at the base, acute, densely crowded together in very close whorls. 

 These ramelli are more or less deciduous in winter, at which season the 

 frond is covered with others of less size, straighter, and perfectly obtuse, 

 which produce the fructification. This consists of stalked, elliptical utricles, 

 or spores, disposed along the sides of the ramelli, and either opposite to 

 each| other or irregularly scattered, Joints of the ramelli shorter than 

 broad, dotted, composed of several layers of minute cells. Colour dull 

 brown, or dirty olive green. Substance of the stem woody. It does not in 

 ' the least adhere to paper in drying. 



Cladostephus spongiosus, the earliest described species of the 

 genus, differs from C. verticillatus, already figured at PL XXXIII., 

 of our first volume, more by its smaller size, more clumsy and 

 somewhat flexuous branches, and more closely imbricated ramelli, 

 than by any more definite character. The distinction in the ra- 



