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slender filaments, and cylindrical articulations sufficiently distinguish
it. It agrees better in these respects with the rare
G. barbata, hut differs in its inflorescence, if I may venture to
use that term to express the disposition of fruit.
The genus Griffithsia, proposed by Agardh, in 1824, has been
universally adopted by botanists, and now includes nearly thirty
species, scattered through the seas of all temperate chmates, and
reaching even to the troubled ocean of Cape Horn. One species
is tropical; several of great beauty are found in the Mediterranean
; and the shores of Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, and
Western South America contribute others. AU the species possess
a common property, that of being exceedingly impatient of the
contact of fresh water. To secure well-preserved specimens they
should be brought home in salt water, and kept in it tiU they can
be laid on paper. A short exposure to air is sufficient to decompose
them, and fresh water causes the membrane of the ceUs to
burst, and the colouring matter to be discharged with violence,
as well described by Dr. Drummond in Loudon’s Magazine of
Natural History.
The genus is nearly allied to Callithamnion, and still more
nearly to Wrangelia, from which latter it is chiefly distinguished
by having the tetraspores involucrated.
; J
Fig. 1. GM F riTH S iA D e v o n ie n s is -.— natural size. 3. Upper portion of a
filament. 3. Involucre. 4. Hamulus of ditto, shewing the position of
the tetraspores. 5. A tetraspore. 6. Apex of a filament, to show the
form of the articulations aU more or less maq ’“ ’