Fig. 244. GRIFFITHSIA EQUISETIFOLIA. 
Colour. Properly, a deep or dark rose-red ; often brownish. 
Substance. Soft and spongy ; yet firm. 
Character of Frond. Thick cylindrical stems and branches ; several times re-branched in a 
loose irregular manner ; everywhere surrounded and densely clothed by rings {whorls) 
of tiny, incurved, many-times forked, jointed branchleteews {ramelli)^ set at very short, 
regular intervals. The branchletee^is 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 branchfeteeTis folding over them ; borne on the tip of a shortened branch. 
2. Tetraspores attached to the inside of another set of special curved branchleteens. 
Habitat. Southern, S.-Eastern, and Western shores of England and Ireland. Frequent. 
Bare in Scotland. 
Now Halurus equisctifolms. 
Fig. 245. SPYRIDIA FILAMENTOSA. 
Colour. A dull red, fading to brownish. 
Substance. 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 branchleteews. 
Measurement. From 2 to 8 inches long. 
Fructification. Of two kinds. 1. Minute spores in stalked, gelatinous, double capsules, with 
three or four special branchletcc??s underneath. 2. External tetraspores, sessile on 
the branchleteews. 
Habitat. Southern shores of England. Blackgang, Isle of Wight, Holyhead. 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. 
106 
