RHODOSPERME®. 185 
satisfactory figure of any portion of this beautiful species. It is asummer 
annual and is very rare, though found in many parts of Britain, and in 
numbers of situations on all the Atlantic shores. My own finest specimens 
were taken years ago near Plymouth. Some of the main stems of these 
were 14in. high, and clothed on each side throughout their whole length 
with closely set bushy branches, gradually getting shorteras they approach 
the apex of the stem, which terminates in a point, the whole plant having 
very much the appearance of a larch firin miniature. The spores are pro- 
duced in small red globular masses imbedded in the marginal filaments 
Fic. 172. (a) Dumontia filijormis; (b) Magnified section of the frond, with 
Favellidia. 
of the frond; tetraspores are plated in the branchlets, one of which is 
represented, magnified, at b, Fig. 171. The colour is a fine rose pink, the 
stems turning a pale yellow in drying. 
Fig. 172 represents a group of young fronds of Dumontia filiformis, the 
branches of the central frond being intentionally shortened. This is 
another of our native species named in honour of a French savant, by 
name Mons. Dumont. The fronds of this common annual grow in tufts 
of three or more, tapered at the base, and gradually thickened upwards for 
an inch or two, then suddenly furnished with long, alternate, round, 
filiform branches, attenuated at each end, generally simple, but occasio nally 
R 
