m SYNOPSIS OF BRITISH SEAWEEDS. 



alone living ; those underneath, as may be at once known 



by their failed colour and offensive smell, arc always found 



dead. In the West of Ireland, where this species abounds, 

 it has been used as manure with success, being particularly 

 suited to a peaty soil ; but, as it requires to be dredged 

 up — its weight and the depth at which it vegetates pre- 

 venting its being drifted in quantity ashore, — the full use 

 is not made of it by the peasantry which its value would 

 seem to call for. 



154. fasciculata (The fasciculated Melobesia) ; frond unattached, 

 roundish or lobed, stony, much branched, fastigiate ; 

 branches solid, thick, crowded together, cylindrical or com- 

 pressed ; apices truncate, broad, somewhat concave, Harv. 

 Phy. Brit. pi. 74. (Atlas, PL XXXV. Fig. 158.) 



Millepora fasciculata, Lam. Xullipora fasciculata, Blainv. Li- 



thothamnium crassum, Phil. 

 Hah. Lying on the sandy bottom of the sea, in 4-5 fathoms 



water. 

 This species would fall under the genus Lithothamnium 

 of Philippi, if it be not the same that he has described by 

 the name L. crassum. I think it must be by a slip of the 

 pen that Decaisne unites these plants to Amphiroa, from 

 which genus they differ in many ways, while they nearly 

 or altogether coincide with his own group Spongites in 

 Melobesia. 



155. agariciformis (The agaric-like Melobesia) ; frond unat- 

 tached, globular, hollow ; foliations delicate, papyro-crus- 

 taceous, dense, erect, much lobed and sinuate, fastigiate ; 

 margin thin, entire, Harv. Phy. Brit. pi. 73. (Atlas, 

 PL XXXV. Pig. 159.) 



Millepora agariciformis, Pall. M. coriacea, Linn. M. decus- 

 sata ? Ellis et Soland. M. tortuosa, Lsper. Xullipora agari- 

 ciformis, Blainv. Pollicipora agariciformis, Ehr. Litho- 

 phyllum expansum, Phil. Melobesia expansa, Endl. Li- 

 thophyllum decussatum ? Phil. Melobesia decussata ? Endl. 

 Mosco petroso, Tmperat. 

 Hab. Lying on the sandy bottom of quiet bays, in 2-3 fathoms 

 water. Rare. 

 I follow Decaisne in referring the Nulliporce of Lamarck 

 to the MelobesicB of Lamouroux, the latter name having 

 been generally adopted by such botanists as have described 

 these productions, and the former by such zoologists as lay 

 claim to them. Both names originated in 1816, and which- 

 ever have priority, it must be a narrow question of 



