170 BRITISH MARINE ALG. 
sometimes in decay being tinted with shades of yellow and green. Favel- 
lidia, or masses of spores, but of small size, are scattered over the frond ; 
tetraspores, which are still more minute, are imbedded in its substance. 
The species microphylla, so named from the small size of its membranous 
lobes, might easily be mistaken for the young state of the foregoing, but 
the different position and arrangement of its conceptacles are considered 
of sufficient value to constitute this plant as a species distinct from K. 
reniformis. I have never seen this plant in fruit, but in Dr. Gray’s 
‘‘ Handbook of British Waterweeds’’ the conceptacles are described as 
‘‘ emerging from one side of the frond only, nearly flat above.”’ 
The genus Gigartina, from the Greek for ‘“‘ grapestone,’’ which the tuber- 
cles of these plants strongly resemble, contains several species which the 
uninitiated collector frequently finds extremely difficult to mount on paper, 
chiefly on account of their horny or cartilaginous nature, some being filiform 
or stringlike, others compressed or flat. G. pistillata, very well represented 
by afruited branch at Fig. 158, has been very aptly compared by Dr. Harvey 
to “a bunch of raisins, from which the fruit has been removed, leaving the 
pedicels only.’’ This species is very rare in this country. I have taken 
it nowhere but in Whitsand Bay, but there I had the good fortune, many 
years ago, to meet with specimens bearing tubercles (asin our illustration) 
and others producing tetraspores. The former are very conspicuous; the 
latter are contained in slightly swollen portions of the branches. The 
root is a fleshy disc, the fronds are tufted, and more or less branched, 
forked, and sparingly furnished with ramuli, which are usually simple, 
but sometimes pinnated or winged, the tips of all being acute or pointed. 
The colour is a dark reddish purple, which turns nearly black in drying. 
G. acicularis, or the needle-pointed Gigartina (Fig. 159), though less rare, 
is by no means abundant. It occurs in Ireland, and on the Cornish coast. 
I have taken it in Torbay, on one occasion with tubercles produced on 
the smaller branches ; but fruit on this species, is, I believe, very rarely 
found. The tufted fronds of this species are often very prettily arched, 
and are set, though sparingly, with simple, alternate wide-spreading 
branches, some of which produce a second series, or are merely secund, 
which signifies the production of branchlets or ramulion one side only. 
The form of the expanded plant is somewhat rounded but inclining to a 
pyramid in outline. The tips of all the branches and ramuli are invariably 
acute, a character which gives the specific name and assists the collector 
in recognising the plant. The colour is similar to that of the foregoing. 
G. Teedu (Fig. 160) is taken from a branch or two of a specimen gathered 
by Mrs. Griffiths at Elberry Cove, in Torbay, thirty years ago. This 
plant, I presume, must be considered one of our greatest rarities. I have 
examined every nook and crevice in every accessible rock pool in Torbay 
for three consecutive seasons without meeting with a scrap of this species. 
I have never met with it in the growing state, but I do not despair of 
finding it some day in or near its old habitat in Torbay, although I 
strongly suspect it has receded further from the shore than formerly, and 
