Fig. 149. COEALLINA SQUAMATA. 



Colour. Purplish or lilac when recent; varying to pinky or brick-dust red, 

 fading to green or milk-white. 



Suhstance. Hard and limy, like coral; but flexible at the joints; exceedingly 

 brittle, when dry. 



Character of Frond. Bushy; tufted; much branched in thick clumsy joints. 

 Stems simple, bearing stiff, straight, upright, mostly opposite branches 

 of sometimes very unequal lengths. Branches once or twice re- 

 branched. Branchlets exactly opposite, and of regular lengths, giving 

 a feathery outline to each division. Lower joints cylindrical, scarcely 

 longer than their breadth; upper, twice as long; flatter, wider, and 

 more distinctly wedge-shaped than those of C. officinalis; with sharp, 

 prominent shoulders. Branchlets very slender, with acute tips. 



Measurement. From 1 to 6 inches high; rising from an expanded lilac-red 

 crust. 



Fructification. Only one kind known. Clustered strings of spores in nrn- 

 shaped or oval capsules; external; at the tips of the branches, or 

 scattered on the sides. 



Hahitat. South coast of England and west of Ireland. On submarine rocks 

 at the extremity of low-water mark. Not common. 



Closely resembling G. officinalis, but they may be distinguished by a carefnl 

 observation of the npper joints of the stem and branches; which in 0. squamata 

 are "broad and flat, with unusually sharp angles." 



Fig. 150. DELESSERIA ANGUSTISSIMA. 



Colour. Dark-red. 



Suhstance. Firm; but membranaceous. 



Character of Frond. Thread-like ( filamentous) ; tufted; excessively branched. 

 Stems cylindrical below, compressed above. Branching very irregular; 

 partly forked [dicliotommis) ; partly alternate. Branches at one level 

 throughout {distichous); of unequal lengths; much divided above, and 

 furnished with numerous forked branchlets. 



Measurement. From 4 to 8 inches long. 



Fructification. Of two kinds. 1. Clustered spores in globose capsules; im- 

 bedded in the tips of the branches, or in small side-branchlets. 

 2. Tetraspores in groups [sori) either in the swollen tips or in narrow 

 side-branchlets. 



Habitat. North of Scotland and east of England. (Filey.) Parasitical on 

 the stems of Laminaria digitata. 



Those who have had the opportunity of seeing much of this plant cannot 

 fail to accept Dr. Harvey's judgment, that it is but an extremely narrow variety 

 of Delesseria alata. At Filey the most strikingly intermediate specimens are 

 to be found. 



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