Fucus delicatulus, F2. Dan. t. 1190. 
SpH#Rococcus sarniensis, Hook. Fl. Scot. part 2. p. 103. Kiitz. Phyc. 
Gen. p. 409. 
Var. «. soboliferus; frond stipitate, membranaceous, the branches very 
narrow below, much divided, expanding upwards into wedge-shaped, 
jagged and laciniate lobes.—(Zad. Nost. CCXVIIT. fig. 2.) 
RuopyMENIa sobolifera, Grev. Aly. Brit. p. 95. Hook. Br. Fl. vol. ii. 
p- 292. Harv. in Mack. Fl. Mb. part 3. p.195. Harv. Man. p. 63. 
Spu#rococcus soboliferus, Kitz. Phyc. Gen. p. 409. 
HatyMeEnIa sobolifera, 4g. Syn. p. 36. Ay. Sp. Alg. vol.i. p. 218. Ag. 
Syst. p. 246. Hook. Fl. Scot. part 2. p. 107. 
Unva sobolifera, Lyngb. Hyd. Dan. p. 27. 
Fucus soboliferus, Fl. Dan. p.1065. Turn. Hist. t.45. Wahl. Fl. Lapp. 
p- 947. #. Bot. t. 21338. 
Has. On rocks within tide marks; and on the stems of Muci, Laminaria, 
&c. Annual or biennial. Winter and spring. Common on all the 
British shores. 8. and y. on the stems of Laminaria. «. on Fucus 
serratus. 
Guoer. Dist. Shores of Northern and Arctic Europe. Iceland. Greenland. 
Eastern shores of North America. Unalaschka. Kurile Islands. Kams- 
katka. Falkland Islands. Tasmania. 
Dzsor. Root, a small dise. Fronds solitary or tufted, rising from a more or less 
evident subcylindrical stipe, from a line to half an inch long, or more, 
which soon flattens into the wedge-shaped base of the lamina; lamina 
broadly wedge-shaped or fan-shaped, somewhat fastigiate, more or less 
deeply cloven into numerous segments, which are often again and again 
divided in a palmate or subdichotomous manner. So variable is the degree 
of division in different specimens that it is impossible to write a general 
character which shall embrace all the forms. In some, the frond is quite 
simple, broadly oval or wedge-form; in others it is cleft into four or five 
principal segments, the margin emitting leaf-like lobes :—these varieties are 
usually of large size, 12-18 inches long, of a coriaceous substance and dark 
colour. Other states (vars. 6. and ¢.) are thinner in substance, and exces- 
sively divided, the lower segments filiform, the upper split into innumerable 
narrow ribbons, often not half a line in breadth; these sometimes expand 
again into wedge-shaped lobes, laciniated at the extremity ; and sometimes 
the whole frond is excessively branched, and none of its divisions more 
than half a line in breadth; the narrow and laciniate varieties are seldom 
more than five or six inches in length. Fructification; tetraspores, half 
immersed in the frond, forming large cloudy patches dispersed over the 
whole frond. Besides these, an imperfect tubercular fructification (?) is 
sometimes found, forming circular spots surrounded by a discolouration. 
Within the circle are congregated innumerable minute, dark-coloured 
pustules, immersed in the frond, slightly prominent and either empty, or 
containing a mass of granular endochrome. Substance in the larger varieties 
leathery, in the smaller membranaceous; the latter adhering closely to 
paper. Colour, a purplish or brownish red; sometimes pinky. 
Fig. 1. RHODYMENIA PALMATA, var. B.:—of the natural size. 2. Portion of 
the surface with tubercles (?). 3. Section of the frond and ¢udercles (?). 
4. Portion of the surface, with part of a Sorws. 5. Tetraspores :—all 
more or less magnified. 
