P l a t e LXII.
LYNGBYA MAJUSCULA, Harv.
G en . C h a e . Filaments destitute of a mucous layer, free, flexible, elongated,
decumbent, not oscillating. continuous ; endoclirome green or
purple, densely annulated, and finally separating into lenticular
sporidia. L y n g b y a [Ag) in bonour of Hans Christian Lyngbye,
author of an excellent work on th e Algae of Denmark.
L y n g b y a majuscula; tufts of large size; filaments very thick, issuing in
long, crisped bundles, from a blackish-green stratum, twisted, simple
or slightly pseudo-branched.
L y n g by a majuscula, Ilarv. in Hook. Br. M. vol.ii. p. 370. Harv. in Mack.
FI. Hib. part. 3. p. 238. Wyatt, Alg. Banm. no. 147. Harv. Man. p. 160.
L y n g by a crispa, Ag. Syst. p. 74 {inpart).
C o n f e e v a majuscula, Billw. Conf. Suppl. t. A.
H a b . On mud-covered, or sand-covered rocks in the sea, at and below
balf-tide level; thrown up after storms, from deep water. Annual.
Summer and Autumn. Santon Sands, Miss B ill. Bantry Bay,
Miss Hutchins. Torbay, Mrs. Griffiths. Belfast Bay, L r . Brummond.
Port Eush, Mr. Moore. Lfracombe, and Mount's Bay, 31r. Ralfs.
Jersey, Miss White.
G e o g e . D i s t r . Shores of the British Islands.
D e s c e . Filaments coUected into widely spreading, blackish green, glossy strata,
of several inches in diameter, which lie on the surface of flat rocks, or on
the sands; at length rising to the surface and floating to the shore. In
these strata the filaments are densely interwoven, and issue from the upper
sui-face, and from the edges, in crisped bundles, one to two inches long.
They are very tortuous, simple, or now and then cohering together, as if
branched, and are of gi-eater diameter than those of any other species of
this genus, twice or thrice as thick as those of L. muralis. The endochrome
is of dull, glaucous green; the annul! closely s e t; and the border of the
tube broad and colomless. Sometimes tbe endochrome is interrupted at
intervals, as if broken; and sometimes it separates as by a distinct ailicu-
lation, into two portions, and it is probable that at a more advanced period
the uppermost portion further separates from the lower, and becomes a new
filament.
This is the largest growing, and strongest species of the genus,
and in favourable situations becomes quite a handsome plant,
resembling in all hut colour, fine tufts of curling hair. But if
we suppose it to have belonged to a sea nymph, the dark green
hue is not so inappropriate.