84. BRITISH MARINE ALG. 
of the microscope is necessary to an appreciation of the growth and 
structure of these parasites. In the species before us, the filaments are 
like a bundle of curly strings which have been partly unravelled and tied 
loosely together at the base; while in the species M. claveformis the 
fronds, although equally produced in bundles, are attenuated at the base, 
and swell out into club-headed tips resembling a fox’s brush. The former 
species is most frequent, though both are sometimes met with growing 
together on the fronds of the same seaweed. There is little or no difficulty 
in mounting these plants on paper, the fronds and ramuli being flaccid and 
Fie. 82. Myriotrichia jivformis on Chorda lomentaria. 
more or less gelatinous. But in order to display the species properly, 
and represent the parasitic growth satisfactorily to the eye of a botanist, 
the whole plant on which the parasite is growing should be secured 
and arranged on the paper while still floating in sea-water, so that the 
tender filaments of the parasite may spread out freely and lie in a natural 
position as the paper is raised gently from the water in a slanting direction. 
The water will thus drain away from the specimen gradually, otherwise the 
string-like filaments will clot together, and the whole process will have 
to be repeated. With this genus I close my description of the British 
Melanosperms. 
