CHLOROSPERME. 13 
branched, and set throughout with short, spreading, or recurved ramuli or 
branchlets. 
There are several species of Enteromorpha, which, to ordinary observers, 
so strongly resemble each other that reference to the microscope is 
absolutely necessary to distinguish them. At the head of these stands 
Enteromorpha clathrata, just mentioned; the others are now classed as 
varieties of this species, but, although I intend to figure only one of them, 
chiefly on account of the grace and beauty of the specimen I possess (which 
is also highly characteristic of the species), I will endeavour to point out 
certain peculiarities of growth in each of them, so that they will be more 
readily recognised by inexperienced collectors. I therefore direct the 
reader’s attention to the figure of H. Linkiana (Fig. 9A). The frond is 
about 6in. or 8in. in height, with a distinct main stem, throwing out along: 
its whole length branches several inches long, smaller in diameter than 
the main stem, and bearing in their turn a second and third series of very 
fine hair-like branches or filaments, all of which spread out, but incline 
upwards. LE. erecta has also a distinct main stem, but the branches, which 
are set on each side of the stem, are more regular in length and are clothed 
with finely attenuated ramuli, which taper to a needle-like point. In 
E. ramulosa, the main stem is less definite than that of the two former 
species, the fronds are tufted and the branches, which are numerous, but 
of irregular length, are bent, or somewhat curved, in various directions ; 
the ramuli are short and bristle-like, and are set without order on the 
branches from the base to the tip. The fronds of all these species are all 
more or less reticulated like a tessellated pavement, and within the cells 
of the surface the spores are formed, generally in groups of fours. E. 
cornucopie is a singular species (if, indeed, it really be a species), usually 
found on Corallina officinalis and other alge. In early growth the fronds 
are like little elongated bags, which soon break at the apices and expand 
into the form which has suggested their fanciful specific name; some 
botanists regard this plant as merely a form of Ulva lactuca, which, in the 
young state of that species, it certainly very strongly resembles. Other 
smaller and rarer species of Enteromorpha are known under the names of 
distinguished botanists, and these are E. Ralfsii and E. Hopkirkii. There 
is also one other variety of E. clathrata known as E. percursa. 
EL. Linkiana, E. ramulosa, E. erecta, and E. percursa were formerly 
regarded as distinct species, but are now considered as variations of 
E. clathrata. The differences in character are hardly appreciable to any 
but practised botanists, hence a particular description of all of them is 
scarcely necessary, at least in a popular account of British seaweeds. 
The genus Conferva formerly included a large number of green plants 
branched and unbranched, but it is now confined exclusively to a definite 
number of filamentous alge, which are made up of masses, more or less 
tufted or matted together, of strings of cells or joints, which increase in 
length, either by a species of budding from the terminal cells of the fila- 
ments, or from a continual division of the old cells in the centre. The latter 
