RHODOSPERME. 16] 
is very characteristic, as having reference to the narrow nerve or line in 
the centre of the laciniations, which is interrupted at short intervals just 
below the forkings of each segment. 
. The genus Phyllophora has also a very appropriate name, which signifies 
“‘leaf-bearers,’’ in reference to the leaf-like membranes which by prolife- 
rous growth are thrown out from the apices and surfaces of the segments 
below them ; and in luxuriant specimens this system of branching, or leaf- 
bearing, is sometimes repeated by a continuous series of simple or branching 
leafy lobes, especially in the largest and most common species, Phyllophora 
rubens, very well represented at Fig. 149. The fine plant from which this 
illustration was taken, I found in Whitsand Bay, near Plymouth. The 
cvlour was a fine rich crimson, and the expanded fronds described a circle 
Fig, 149. Phyllophora rubens. 
of 2ft.6in. The spores in this species are contained in scattered tubercles 
and also in nemathecia, warty excrescences on the surface of the frond, 
which are composed of strings of jointed filaments, some of the joints 
of which are sometimes converted into spores. Tetraspores are placed in 
small leafy processes or collected in patches, called ‘‘ sori,’”? near the tips 
of the fronds. VP. rubens is perennial and fruits in winter. It is common 
on the southern shores of England and Ireland, but is rare in Scotland. 
P. Brodiwi is, however, abundant on the eastern coast of Scotland, but 
rare in England. The typical form of this species has a more distinctly 
cylindrical stem than the foregoing, and the upper divisions and segments 
of the frond are narrower and fewer, though produced on the same 
principle. The colour is rarely so brilliant as in P. rwbens, and the plaut 
