RHODOSPERME®. 9 
branches, all of which spread out and point upwards, and when well 
mounted on paper may be made to describe a complete circle. The 
fructification of this curious plant constitutes its chief interest, at least 
to an algologist. Tetraspores are found occasionally immersed among 
the filaments of the periphery or outer margin of the frond; but it is 
the primary form of fruit that has caused this species to receive more than 
ordinary attention, and has given British and foreign systematists a 
world of trouble. The illustration, Fig. 83, represents a large frond of 
Polyides lumbricalis, taken by me at Whitsand Bay, near Plymouth ; the 
branches are crowded with dark brown-red spongy or wart-like masses of a 
roundish or oblong form. These warty masses are called “‘ favelle,’’ and 
contain clusters of spores imbedded in their substance, each cluster being 
surrounded by a pellucid or colourless border. 
I now pass on to the plants which are included in Professor Agardh’s 
newly-constituted genus Lomentaria; the name having reference to the 
cross lines, or constrietions, which occur throughout the stems and 
branches of these plants. The fronds of most of the species of this 
group may be briefly described as being, for the most part, tubular, con- 
stricted, or tied in, as it were, at short intervals, and filled with a slimy or 
watery juice, which last peculiarity was referred to in the original name 
of this genus, viz :—Chylocladia or “juicy branch.’’ The spores of these 
plants are contained in round, or sometimes conical, conceptacles, called 
“ ceramidia ;” tripartite tetraspores are imbedded in the branches and 
ramuli. Lomentaria kaliformis, represented at Fig. 84, by the terminal 
portion of a branch, is a summer annual, being found from June to 
September. It varies greatly in size according to its place of growth. 
Plants which are found in tidal rock pools are stunted in form and poor 
in colour, but specimens which are dredged, or are cast ashore, exhibit the 
normal form of this handsome species in perfection, the fronds being from 
12in. to 20in. long, and of a fine purple-red colour. The capsules of this 
species are spherical and very distinct, being of tolerably large size, and 
are seated on the young branches. Tetraspores are immersed in the 
ramuli, and may be seen easily with an ordinary lens. Large specimens 
of this plant are troublesome to mount on paper, on account of the densely- 
packed whorls of branchlets and ramuli, which are set around the stems 
with tolerable regularity at the numerous constrictions, many of the 
whorls bearing one or more series of lesser branches and ramuli, all of 
which taper by degrees as they approach the tips. A little judicious 
pruning, however, helps to form beautiful specimens for the herbarium, 
but great care must be observed in the pressure employed, which must 
be very gradual; indeed, this remark applies to all of these juicy-branched 
plants, many of which should be allowed to drain and contract under 
the calico and blotting paper before they are subjected to any degree 
of pressure. JL. ovalis (Fig. 85) is abundant on the north and south 
coast of Devon. This curious plant, with its little tufts of bud-like 
ramuli, produced irregularly on the stems and branches, has somewhat 
