RHODOSPERMES. 181 
acute tips, presenting like Polyides, when spread out on paper, a perfectly 
rounded outline. This plant, which is a very dark red, turns quite black 
and horny in drying, and requires great care and patience in making ita 
presentable book specimen. It is abundant all round our coasts, is 
perennial, and fruits in winter. 
The genus Gratelowpia, dedicated to M. Grateloup, a French naturalist, 
is represented on our shores by one species only, G. filicina, or the fern- 
like Grateloupia, a pretty specimen of 
which is represented at Fig. 167. In 
outward appearance this species has 
a strong resemblance to the variety 
flecuosum of Gelidium corneum, but 
its structure and system of fructi- 
fication are widely different. Faveilidia 
are concealed beneath moniliform or 
necklace-like filaments, of which the 
outer stratum of the frond is composed; 
tetraspores are placed among the peri- 
pheric filaments of the lateral branch- 
lets. The fronds are tufted, each 
having a main stem about 3in. high, 
tapered at each extremity, and set on 
each side with alternate or opposite 
series of flexuous branches, some of 
which occasionally put forth a second 
set of branchlets or ramuli, all of which 
are attenuated at the base, and drawn 
out to a sharp point at the tips. This 
species is rare in Britain, but it is met 
with in several situations, chiefly on 
the south and west coasts. It is peren- 
nial, and fruits during the winter 
months. The colour is dull red, but 
specimens which grow where a fresh- 
water stream runs into the sea, turna 
pale fawn colour in the upper branches, 
as though they were bleached in the 
sun. 
Under the generic name of Schizy- 
menia, signifying ‘‘cloven membrane,”’ 
are now included two plants, each of which until recently, were in 
separate and very differently constituted genera. The first of these, 
formerly Iridea, is now Schizymenia edulis. Fig. 168 represents a group 
of very perfect young fronds. They arise from a firm expanded disc, 
and are from 3in. to 20in. long, of a fleshy or somewhat leathery sub- 
stance, having a very short round stem, which gradually fiattens and 
Fie. 169. Schizymenia Dubyt. 
