Fig. 244. GRIFFITHSIA EQUISETIFOLIA. 



Colour. Properly, a deep or dark rose-red; often brownisli. 

 Suh stance. Soft and spongy; yet firm. 



Character of Frond. Thick cylindrical stems and branches; several times 

 re-branclied in a loose irregular manner; everywhere surrounded and 

 densely clothed by rings {wJiorls) of tiny, incurved, many-times forked, 

 jointed hrsmchleteens [ramelli), set at very short, regular intervals. 

 The branchletee?!.? about one-tenth of an inch long, and overlapping 

 each other. Branches and branchlets, all tapering greatly to both 

 ends. 



Measurement. From 3 to 8 inches long. 



Fructification. Of two kinds. 1. Minute spores in clustered capsules, with 

 a circle of special curved branchletee??.9 folding over them; borne on 

 the tip of a shortened branch. 2. Tetraspores attached to the inside 

 of another set of special curved branchletee?i5. 



Hahitat. Southern, S. -Eastern, and Western shores of England and Ireland. 

 Frequent. Eare in Scotland. 



'Now Halurus equisetifolius. 



Fig. 245. SPYRIDIA FILAMENTOSA. 



Colour. A dull red, fading to brownish. 



Bnhstance. Soft, but not gelatinous. Stems firmly elastic. 



Character of Frond. Thread-shaped [filiform) ; tufted; much branched. 

 Stems nearly opaque; with an obscure appearance of joints. Branches 

 spreading, many times compounded; more or less beset_, the younger 

 ones especially, with very minute^ hair-like, simple or subdivided, 

 jointed branchleteens. 



Measurement. From 2 to 8 inches long. 



Fructification. Of two kinds. 1. Minute spores in stalked, gelatinous, 

 double capsules J with three or four special branchletee?is underneath. 

 2. External tetraspores , sessile on the hranchleteens . 



Habitat. Southern shores of England. Blackgang, Isle of Wight. Holy- 

 head. On rocks near low- water mark. 



More plentiful in the Channel Islands, and along the French coast, than on 

 the shores of England, where the specimens are of a brownish colour, and not 

 finely grown. 



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