i . I-if
Ii
0 ^
■•V7
D E L E S S E R IA o c e l l a t a .
D elicate linea/r Delesseria.
A
C la s s a n d O r d e r CRYPTOGAMIA ALG-E,'£mra.—N a t . O r d . ALGJE, Juss.
De Cand.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Frons membranáceo, ( stipitata vel acaulis, foliácea vel laminosa, rarissime f l i -
, formis) . Fructus duplex : capsulce et sori sporidiis ternis.—Ac.
Frond membranaceous (stipitate or sessile, foliaceous or simply expanded,
very rarely filiform). Fructification double ; capsules and sori of ternate
sporidia.
S P E C IF IC c h a r a c t e r .
D e l e s s e r ia ocellata; fronde tenuissima, avenia, ad basin fe r e fs s a , segmentis
divaricatis, sublinearibus, dichotomis, obtusis, soris in segmentis.
D. frond very thin, veinless, divided nearly to the base, segments divaricated,
nearly linear, dichotomous, obtuse, sori in the segments.
D e l e s s e r ia o c e l l a t a ; Lamouroux, Ess. p. 38.—Ag. Sp. Alg. v . 1. p. 187.—
Syst. Alg. p. 252.
WoRMSKioLDiA o c e l l a t a , Spreng. Sp. PI. v. 4. p. 331.
F u cu s ocellatus, Lamour. Diss. t. 32.
Fu cu s granateus, Lamour. Diss. t. 33. f. 3, 4.
H a b . Sea-shores in the south-west of England. Torquay and Budleigh,
in fructification from Ju n e to October, b u t found in a young state as early
as Ma rch; Mrs G r i f f i t h s .
Root extremely minute, scutate. Frond exceedingly thin and delicate, perfectly
sessile, of a beautiful pink colour, from 2 to 5 inches in length.
In its general outline, the frond has a tendency to become round, or ra-
ther reniform: it is cleft nearly to the very base, where, previous to division,
it rarely is more than h a lf an inch in b re a d th ; the primary segments
vary from two lines to h a lf an inch in breadth, and ai-e repeatedly
divided, mostly in a dichotomous manner, becoming slightly narrower
after each division. The inferior divisions are more or less dilated
upwards, b u t the remainder are more or less linear, and all are
divaricated; at the extremities they are obtuse, and frequently not more
than a line broad. Substance finely reticulated. Sori generally situated
on some of the central divisions of the frond, oval, somewhat vacant in
the centre, so that the ternate sporidia appear to form a circle.
Mr D a w s o n T u r n e r , in his observations upon Fucus
ulvoides (Hist. Fuc. t. 80.), mentions a plant very similar in
-