Europe, and found according to Martms, in Brazil. It was
originally described by Ligbtfoot, whose excellent specific name
I retain in preference to tbat of Roth, conferred nearly thirty
years subsequently, and which is universally adopted on the continent.
What are described as fruiting ramuli, and represented in our
plate at fig. 6, are regarded by Italian authors, the accurate and
acute Meneghini included, as a parasitical plant, which De No-
taris has named Sphacelaria Bertiana. Meneghini in his ‘ Algae
Italiane e Dalmatiche ’ enters largely into this question, and zealously
defends the parasitical theory; regarding these ramuli as
analogous productions to the FlacMstea velutina, which no one
supposes to belong to the plant that it infests. The case of the
so called Sphacelaria Bertiana is, however, widely different.
Unlike the FlacMstea, which infests more than one species of
distinct genera, of a different family of Algse from that to which
it belongs; the F. Bertiana is only found on the Cladostephi;
but on these it is constantly produced at a particular season of
the year. It, moreover, has the same structure as their stem,
and certainly is not merely attached to the surface, but springs
from a prolongation of the peripheric cells, and above all the
fruit which it bears is exactly what, from analogy, we should expect
on the Cladostephi, and, if this be not their fruit, no
other has been observed, unless the granular mass within the
tips of the whorled ramuli can he called so. These facts, and
others that might he adduced, compel me to form a contrary
opinion to that defended by Meneghini; and in this opinion I am
supported by Mrs. Griffiths, to whom I owe my first acquaintance
with these fruit-bearing ramuli, and by the Rev. Mr.
Berkeley whose judgment, on all such subjects, is of great
authority.
Fig. 1. C l a d o s t e p h u s v e k t ic il l a t u s :— natural size. 2. Portion of a branch.
3. Eamuli. 4. Apex of the same. 5. Sphacelate apex, of another ramu-
las. 6. Accessory fruiting ramuli. 7. Utricle in situ. 8. Portion of a
transverse section of the stem :— all more or It