T
I. SPHÆROCOCCUS CORONOPIFOLIUS. Tab. XV.
Frond cartilaginous much branched in a distichous and alternate
manner compressed and two-edged below nearly flat upwards the
branches acute at the apex, capsules spherical mucronate on little
stalks fringing the smaller branches.
Sphoerococcus coronopifolius, Ag . S p . A lg . v . 1. p . 291. S y s t. A lg . p . 229. S p r e n g . S p .
P I . V. 4. p . 337.
Gelidium coronopi/olium, L am o u r . E s s a i, p . 41.
Desmia Hornemamii, L y n g b . H y d r o p h . D a n . p . 35. t . 7.
Fucus coronopifolius, G o o d e n , a n d W o o d . L in n . T r a n s , v. 3. p . 185. T u r n . S y n . F u c .
p . 288. H i s t . F u c . 1. 122. S m . E n g . B o t. t. 1478, v e r y b a d . L am o u r . D is s e r t, t . 33.
H a b . In the sea. Biennial. Autumn. All along the coast of Cornwall,
Stackhouse. At Looe, Penzance, and elsewhere on tlie same coast,
Mr E. Forster junior. Coast of Devonshire, Goodenough. Sidmouth
and Torquay, Mrs Griffiths. Coast of Dorsetshire, Pulteney.
Shores of the Isle of Portland, Turner. At Weymouth, Mr F. Foster
junior, and the Rev. J. M. Berkeley. Shores of the Isle of Wight,
Miss E. Everett. Near Belfast, Mr Templeton. Larne, near Belfast,
Dr Drummond. Bantry Bay, Miss Hutchins. Isle of Bute,
extremely rare.
Root an irregular roundish disk. Frond from six to eighteen inches
long, very much branched, about two lines wide in the lower part,
where it is also compressed and two-edged, becoming narrower and
flatter upwards, and at length terminating in narrow, acute segments.
Branches distichous, spreading in every direction, the principal ones
given off near the base, and divided somewhat dicbotomously, the
smaller ones divided more regularly in an alternate pinnate manner,
and fringed at the margin with numerous minute cilise and the fiucti-
fication. Along the branches runs a faint naiTow midrib, from which
proceed obscure lateral parallel veins. Fructification, minute spherical
capsules, supported on little slender stalks less than a line in length,
obliquely mucronate, containing a mass of ovate pedicellate red seeds.
Substance cartilaginous. Colour a fine scarlet, very dark in the primary
branches, in the young shoots pink. In drying it adheres imperfectly
to paper, and becomes horny in the thicker parts.
One of the most beautiful of the British Algce when in its perfect
state ; but it is very often more or less mutilated by the action of the
waves, before it comes into the hands of the botanist. Mr Turner’s
figure is exceedingly characteristic, but is from a partly injured specimen,
and the curious structure is overlooked in the magnified portions.
The representation in “ English Botany” is bad in the extreme, but
the obscure venation is there mentioned as having been first observed
by Mr J. Sowerby. In common with most authors I have described
the capsules as pedicellate. Strictly speaking, however, they are sessile,
and the little stalk is nothing more than one of the minute ramuli
or marginal ciliæ, the extremity of which forms the mucro or little
point beyond the capsule : in fact, the capsules are sometimes found
sessile at the margin of the branches. Mr Turner is just in his remark,
that this plant bears a considerable affinity with Plocamium
coccineum, both in colour and the disposition of the ramuli, which, at
the ends of the branches, are secund. In regard to structure, the two
are very different.
S. coronopifolius is unknown on the eastern coast of the Island.
In Ireland it is frequent ; but in Scotland, even on the western side, it
is of very rare occurrence ; indeed, I am not aware of its having been
found, except by myself, on the shores of the Isle of Bute.
G e n u s XXXVIII. GELIDIUM; Lamcmr. Tab. XV.
G e n . C h a r . Frond between cartilaginous and borny, compressed,
linear, more or less regularly pinnated. Fructification:
1. capsules imbedded in the substance of tlie
ramuli, containing a mass of minute roundish seeds:
2. ternate or otherwise compound granules in the ramuli,
on distinct individuals.
Ob s. a genus established by Lamouroux in his £«««', and named by
him Gelidium, because, in the majority of the species, the frond is almost
entirely reducible to a gelatinous substance, by boiling or maceration.
It appears to me to be a very natural one, and though merged
in Sphcerococcus by Agardh, is retained by Messrs Gaillon and Bory
de St Vincent. The root is generally accompanied by,creeping fibres;
the frond elegantly pinnated, but liable to great yariatipn: the colour
a fine red, but in some species changeable and evanescent, so that on
the same individual there is often a variety of shades: in decay the
■ti