bling the primary frond, fructification, hemispherical sessile very rugose
capsules on the disk of the frond.
Sphoerococcus rubens, A g . S p . A lg . v . 1. p . 2 3 /. S y s t. A lg . p . 213. G r e v . F I. E d in . p . 296.
S p r e n g . S p . P I . v . 4. p . 335.
Chondrus rubens, L y n g b . H y d r o p h . D a n . p . 18.
Delesseria rubens, L am o u r . E s s a i, p . 38.
Fucus rubens, L in n . S p . P I . v . 2. p . 1630. T u m . S y n . F u c . p . 216. H is t. F u c . 1 . 12.
S m . E n g . B o t. t. 1053.
Fucus prolifer, L ig h t f . F I . S c o t. p . 949. t . 30.
Fucus ci'ispus, H u d s . F I . A n g . p . 580.
H a b . On stones and rocks in the sea. Perennial. Winter. Common
on the English coast. On the western coast of Scotland, Lightfoot.
Very rare on the eastern coast. Orkney, Rev. C. Clouston.
Plentiful in Belfast Lough, Dr Drummond.
Root a hard flattened disk. Fronds tufted, three to seven inches
long; stem a few lines only in length, cylindrical, expanding gradually
into a frond, about an inch and a half long, two to four lines wide,
wedge-shaped or linear-wedge-shaped, entire or forked, obtuse or
acute at the apex, flat, and furnished with a very obscure midrib.
Towards the end of this primary frond arise one or more others from
the plane surface, similar in form, and in this manner several series of
proliferous branches are produced. Fructification ; 1. capsules about the
size of poppy-seed, sessile, hemispherical, much wrinkled and crisped,
containing a small mass of very minute ovate seeds : 2. minute roundish
subpeltate leaflets on distinct plants, their little stalk, and part of their
inferior surface incrassated with a blackish-red mass of dense parallel
moniliform filaments [nemathecia, Ag.). Substance thin, between
membranaceous and cartilaginous, rather rigid, semitransparent, not in
the least gelatinous. Colour a fine, but dull opake red, in the young
shoots pink. In drying it becomes darker, and does not adhere in the
least degree to paper.
There is no British plant with which it is possible to confound this
species, the proliferous manner of growth being uniformly present, except
in very young plants. The only variation of any importance that
occurs is in the shape of the frond, which is sometimes linear, sometimes
wedge-shaped : both forms are often present, even in the same individual.
In one specimen, communicated by my friend Dr Drummond,
from the Irish coast, the proliferous frondlets are all linear, and about
two inches in, length. The nemathecia are very beautiful under the
microscope, attenuated at each extremity, and apparently composed
of a double parallel series of red spherical granules, connected by a
colourless filament.
According to the Linnean Herbarium, it would appear that Linnæus,
by Fucus rubens. Intended the present plant ; but I entirely coincide
with Mr Dawson Turner, that Linnæus, in his description,
seems to have associated more than one species.
G e n u s XXXVII. SPHÆROCOCCUS, Stachh. Tab. XV.
G e n . C h a r . Frond cartilaginous, compressed, two-edged,
linear, distichously branched. Fructification, mucronate
capsules containing a mass of ovate shortly pedicellate
red seeds.
O bs. T wo species probably constitute this genus : Fucus coronopifolius
of Goodenough and Woodward, and F. crinitus of Gmelin, both
arranged by Agardh in one of the sections of Sphoerococcus. My specimen
of F. crinitus is too imperfect to allow me to speak with any
certainty about it, but the two-edged stem and mucronate capsules,
along with the habit of the plant, indicate a near affinity. Of Fucus
coronopifolius of authors, I have perfect individuals in all states, and
it is upon this species that I found my genus. The frond is not pinnated
as in Gelidium, but rather alternately branched throughout, the
smaller branches ciliated with the capsules and minute processes. In
addition to the frond being two-edged, the branches, in Sphoerococcus
coronopifolius at least, if viewed with a moderate magnifier, are found
to be obliquely and transversely striated ; and, upon dissection, a kind
of midrib and lateral veins are sufficiently evident, being composed of
distinctly elongated cellules. The capsules themselves are not lodged
in the substance of the frond as in Gelidium, but ai-e distinct, and the
seeds, instead of forming a mere globular mass, are supported upon
very delicate pedicels.
Being averse to dismiss entirely the name of Sphoerococcus, I have
retained it for this place. It will be conceded, that, if the genera proposed
by Lamouroux deserve to be sustained, his names must be received
in right of their priority, unless manifestly objectionable. Under
such circumstances, I have no alternative but to adopt Sphoerococcus
as a newly defined genus, devoting to it, however, two plants, admitted
to be species by my friend Agardh himself.
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