Clare Island Survey — Marine Algae. 16 125 



and not abortive. Occasionally specimens only 1 inch high were observed 

 in fruit. In channels on the salt-marsh, the same plant occurs ; but it is 

 not so easily traceable to the normal F. spiralis, and is liable to be confused 

 with F. vesiculosus var. balticus. It may be distinguished from that plant by 

 its slightly wider, regularly bifurcating fronds, over which the cryptostomata 

 are evenly distributed, and by its scattered habit. The fronds, moreover, 

 are always fertile in summer; and their hermaphrodite conceptacles, with 

 projecting paraphyses, are very marked. 



F. lutavius Kiitz., which has lately been described with great care by 

 Sauvageau ('08), agrees with F, spiralis in possessing projecting paraphyses 

 — a character which strongly suggests that it may be a reduced salt-marsh 

 form of that species. In F. lutarius the conceptacles do not reach maturity, 

 and the cryptostomata are marginal. A difference in form, together with an 

 abundance of proliferating branches, is also noticeable ; but this may be 

 caused by its peculiar habitat (mud-banks). Proliferating specimens of 

 F. spiralis var. nanus were frequently noted at Mulranny. 



F. vesiculosus L. 



See notes on Fucaceae association (pp. 23 and 51 ). 



Var. evesiculosus, auct. — To var. evesiQulosvs auct. I refer the short non- 

 vesicled form of F. vesiculosus which is abundant on Clare Island. The name 

 is not altogether satisfactory ; but till the British Fuci have been studied and 

 described in greater detail, it appears the most suitable. The plant is 

 abundant on, and characteristic of, exposed coasts in west Ireland, and also 

 in south England. It is found likewise in the north of France, ami is 

 probably similar to that recorded by Sauvageau, under the above name, 

 from north Spain ('97). A non-vesicled form of F. vesiculosus is described 

 by Kylin for the exposed shores of west Sweden ; but this variety, which Ik; 

 identifies as comp-essus racemosus Kjellm., is, judging from specimens kindly 

 sent by him, a decidedly longer plant, of a much less sturdy habit. 



Var. balticus J. Ag. — To this plant I have referred a dwarf Fucus 

 tolerably abundant in Clew Bay, which is intermediate in size between 

 F. vesiculosus var. volubilis (Huds.) and the very dwarf form described 

 below as var. muscoides. 



Great confusion exists with regard to the identity and nomenclature 

 of these forms. The paper just published by Miss Baker ('12) clears 

 up the uncertainty as to F volubilis Huds. The many different forms 

 assumed by this plant on the salt-marshes of Essex and Norfolk are described 

 and illustrated; and I am indebted to Miss Baker for notes on the differences 



