Ser. Melanosperjie/E. Fain. Ectocarpea. 



Plate CXLII. 



SPHACELARIA FILICINA, Ag. 



Gen. Char. Filaments jointed, rigid, distichously branched, pinnated ; 

 rarely simple or subdichotomous. Apices of the branches distended, 

 membranous, containing a dark granular mass. Fmctification ; ellip- 

 tical utricles (or spores) furnished with a limbus, borne on the ramuli. 

 — Sphacelaria {Lyngb.), o-QdKeXos, gangrene, alluding to the withered 

 tips of the branches. 



Sphacelaria filicina) frond shaggy at the base, slender, irregularly 

 branched; branches lanceolate, erecto-patent, bi-tri-pinnate ; pinnae 

 alternate, erect; pinnules multifid, lanceolate; axils all very acute 

 and narrow. 



Sphacelaria filicina, Ag. Syst. p. 166. Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 22. Harv. in 

 Hook. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 323. Mont. Crypt. Alg. no. 24. Menegh. Alg. Ital. 

 et Balm. p. 324. Harv. Man. p. 37. J. Ag. Alg. Medit. p. 30. Endl. §rd. 

 Suppl. p. 23. Mont. Fl. Alg. p. 41. Wyatt, Alg. Banm. n. 170. 



Sphacelaria hypnoides, Greo. Scott. Orypt. Fl. t. 348. 



Sphacelaria simpliciuscula, Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 31. 



Halopteris filicina, Kiltz. Phyc. Gen. p. 292. 



Ceramium filicinum, Gratel. Joiim. Med. vol. iv. p. 33. 



Hab. On rocks and nullipores near low-water mark, and at the roots of 

 Laminaria, &c. Very rare. Perennial. Fruiting in Winter. Plymouth, 

 Mr. Sconce. Ilfracombe, Mrs. Griffiths and Mrs. Hare. Salcombe, 

 Mrs. Wyatt. Jersey, Miss Turner and Miss White. Mount's Bay, 

 Cornwall; and Holyhead, Anglesea, Mr. Ralfs. Belfast Bay, Mr. 

 W. TJwmpson. Youghal, Miss Ball. Kinsale Harbour, Br. J. 21. 

 Harvey. 



Geogr. Distr. Atlantic shores of France and Spain. Mediterranean Sea. 



Descr. Fronds two to four inches high, slender, more or less clothed at the 

 base with curled brown fibres, irregularly and sparingly divided ; branches 

 distichous, erect, often bearing at their summit numerous lesser branches 

 displayed like a fan ; sometimes naked, sometimes regularly pinnated 

 throughout. Brandies linear-lanceolate in outline, the uppermost and 

 lowermost pinnae generally shorter, those in the middle longer, with now 

 and then two or three of much greater length than those immediately 

 adjoining. Pinna alternate, erecto-patent, bi-pinnate, or tri-pinnatc below, 

 with two pinnules constantly given oil* from the upper side of the rachis 

 before any issue from the lower side. Pinnules issuing at every Becond 

 joint, very erect, at first simple and subulate, afterwards pinnato-multind, 

 then* ultimate divisions subulate and appressed. Fructification pro- 

 duced on the young pinnules while yei simple, a single obovatc spore 

 forming in the axil of the pinnule. Articulations hall" as long as broad, 

 multi-striatc ; the stria 1 Less evidenl m the younger parts of the frond. A 

 cross section of the stem shows four large central cell-, destitute of endo- 

 chrome, surrounded by numerous, coloured cellules. Colour a more or Less 

 greenish olive. Substance rij^itl, scarcer) adhering to paper. 



