rr
104
twine, aud often undivided, beating' throughout its whole extent nume-
I'ous irregular erecto-patent hranches (of which the lowest are usually
the longest), two to five inches in length. The hranches are set
with several other series, each preserving the same characters upon a
smaller scale, the youngest alternately pinnate. Fructification : 1.
ovate solitary or “ panicled” capsules, situated on the younger branches,
and containing free pyriform seeds : 2. pinnated clusters of lateral or
terminal lanceolate pod-like receptacles containing ternate granules.
Substance cartilaginous, very rigid in winter, more flexible, and
somewhat flaccid in summer, and then adhering to paper in drying.
Colour a brownish-red, or pale yellow-brown, changing to black, except
in the smaller branches, when dry.
The summer and winter state of this species present even a greater
contrast than that which we have seen to exist in the last species. In the
winter, all the finer branches disappear, and those that remain are rigid,
broken, and battered. In the summer a profusion of young branches
are produced, of a paler colour, and frequently terminated by flaccid
tufts, of exceedingly fine confervoid filaments. The fructification is
produced in summer, but it appe.ars to me that the pod-like receptacles,
at least, are produced eai'lier on plants of the second year than on plants
of the first. Young plants come into fruit of both kinds in June : but
the year following, the first shoots that are put forth, as early as February
and March, are often only two or three lines in length, and terminated
with the receptacles of ternate granules.
I :
' i !
ii
* * Summ it o f the hranches involute.
3. R h o d o m e la p in a s t r o id e s . Tab. X III.
Frond cylindrical branched clothed with equal apparently jointed
secund ramuli.
Rhodomela pinastroides, Ag . S p . A lg . v . 1. p . 381. S y s t . A lg . p . 200. S p r e n g . S p . P I.
V. 4 . p . 343.
Gigartina pinastroides, L y n g b . H y d r o p h . D a n . p . 45.
Fucus pinastroides, G m e l. H i s t . F u c . p . 1 2 7 -1. I I . f . I . T u m . S y n . F u c . 346. H lsU F u c .
t . 11. S m . E n g . B o t. t . 1042.
H a b. On rocks in tb e sea. Perennial. November to Febmary.
Coast of Cornwall, Stackhouse. Torquay and Sidmouth, Mrs Griffiths-
Lyme Regis, and many other places on the Devonshire coast. Weymouth,
Pulteney. At Portsmouth, Mr Gilman. Deal, Martyn. Sussex,
not uncommon, Mr Borrer. Coast of Ireland, near Dublin, Dr Scott.
Root a small disk. Fronds tufted, three to Uvelve inches in height,
about as thick as a crow-quill, branched in a fastigiate manner, the
i
hranches long, somewhat recurved, and clothed with numerous ramuli
ramuli half an inch long or more, mostly simple, arising on all sides of
the stem, but more or less secund, especially in the upper part, where
they are generally given off in pairs. The younger branches and
ramuli are involute at the extremity, and even to the naked eye are
transversely striated, as if articulated. Fructification i 1. minute,
spherical, shortly pedicillate capsules, containing free pyriform seeds,
and situated on the ramuli: 2. minute lanceolate, curved, pod-like receptacles
arising from the ramuli, and containing ternate granules.
Substance cartilaginous. Colour dull red. In drying it does not
adhere to paper, and becomes quite black and rigid.
Notwithstanding the apparently articulated structure of this plant, it
is not in reality interrupted in its internal continuity. The whole substance
is composed of a mass of uniform oblong hexagonal cells, arranged
in transverse rows, so that the junction of the top of one set of
cells with the commencement of the next set, forms the dark line which
bears the extei-nal character of an articulation.
In the winter months, very minute, globular, shortly stalked yellow
bodies, resembling what are called anthers in JungermannicB, form
clusters upon the upper ramuli, and from their number are very obvious,
as the plant is growing under water. They are certainly extraneous,
and probably of an animal nature.
4. R h o d o m e l a s c o r p io id e s .
Frond cylindrical capillary attenuated three or four times pinnated
branches horizontal the uppermost ones involute at the extremity.
Rhodomela scorpioides, Ag. S p . A lg . v . 1. p . 380. S y s t . A lg . p . 200. S p r e n g . S p . P I.
V. 4 . p . 343.
Fucus scorpioides, H u d s . F I . A n g . E d . 1. p . 471.
Fucus amphibius, H u d s . F I . A n g . E d . 2. p . 590. T u r n . S y n . F u c . p . 391. H i s t . F u c .
t . 109. S m . E n g . B o t . t . 1428.
Plocamium amphibhm, L am o u r . E s s a i, p . 50.
H a b . On rocks in the sea, and in salt water ditches and marshes,
growing about the roots of flowering plants and other substances.
Annual ? Summer. North Wales, Rev. H. Davies. Abundant at
Shoreham, growing upon Atriplex portulacoides, Mr Borrer. Mouth of
the River Dart, Mrs Griffiths. Tydd Marsh, Cambridgeshire, Mr
Skrimshire. Shore of Blackwater at Maldon, Mr F. Foster junior.
Selseg Marshes, Martyn.
Root a minute disk. Fronds tufted, entangled, cylindrical, two or
three inches in length, alternately branched in a distichous manner:
f A