Ser. Melanosperme^e. Fam. Sphacdarka. 



Plate LXXXVII. 



SPHACELARIA PLUMOSA, Lyngb. 



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

 rarely simple, or subdichotomous. Apices of the branches distended, 

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

 tical utricles, furnished with a limbus, borne on the ramuli. Spha- 

 celaria (Lyngb.), — from o-fydKeXos, gangrene, alluding to the withered 

 tips of the branches. 



Sphacelaria plumosa : filaments naked at the base, elongated, irregularly 

 branched, inarticulate; branches pectinato-pinnate ; pinnae opposite, 

 simple, very long and closely set. 



Sphacelaria plumosa, Lyngb. Fl. Dan. p. 103. t. 30. Ag. Syst. Alg. p. 166. 

 Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 24. Grev. Fl. Edin. p. 313. Harv. in Hook. Brit. 

 Fl. vol. ii. p. 324. Harv. in Mack. Fl. Hib. part hi. p. 180. Harv. Man. 

 p. 38. Wyatt, Alg. Damn. no. 300. Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 23. 



Ch.etopteris plumosus, Kiitz. Phyc. Gen. p. 293. 



Ceramium pennatum, Fl. Dan. t. 1481. Roth. Cat. Dot. vol. hi. p. 133. 

 Ag. Syn. p. 68. 



Conferva pennata, Sm. E. Bot. t. 2330 {the left hand figure). 



Hab. On rocks, near low- water mark, and at a greater depth. Perennial. 

 Beachy Head, Mr. Borrer. Frith of Forth, Sir J. Richardson and 

 Br. Greville. Wicklow, W. H. H. Belfast Bay, Mr. W. Thompson. 

 Near Caernarvon, also at Ilfracombe, and Land's end, Mr. Ralfs. 

 Howth and Balbriggan, Miss Gower. Orkney, Rev. J. II. Pollexfen. 

 Kilbride, Major Martin. 



Geogr. Distr. German Ocean, along the shores of Denmark and Norway. 

 Baltic Sea. Greenland, Fabricius {see Lyngb.). 



Descr. Root minute, scutate. Fronds tufted, from two to four or six inches in 

 length, setaceous, naked below, irregularly much branched above. Branches 

 alternate or secund, or frequently fasciculate, several growing from the 

 wounded apex of an older branch, one or two inches long, simple, erecto- 

 patent, closely pectinate throughout their whole length with slender articu- 

 lated ramuli. Ramuli patent, from one to three lines in length, opposite, 

 issuing from every joint of the branches, parallel to each other, and of 

 equal length, either quite simple or occasionally pectinato-piiinate in their 

 upper half. Apices of the branches frequently sphacelate. Main Hem opake, 

 not obviously jointed ; branches more translucent, jointed, the joints shorter 

 than their breadth, longitudinally striate, and marked with a dark-coloured 

 spot; joints of the ramuli about once and a half as Long as broad, similarly 

 marked. Colour olivaceous, or occasionally rusty. Subitance rigid, not 

 adhering to paper in drying. 



By earlier writers this beautiful species was confounded with 



z 



