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P l a t e CLXXIV.
CLADOPHORA PELLUCIDA, M tz.
Gen . Ch a r . Filmneuts green, jointed, attached, uniform, branched. Fruit,
aggregated granules or zoospores, contained in the articulations,
having, at some period, a proper ciliary motion. Cladophora I
— from xXaSof, a branch, and <j>opea, to bear.
Cladophora p e lh uA ia ; filaments rigid, erect, setaceous, full dark-green,
di-tri-ohotomous ; the axils very acute, the branches erect ; articulations
many times longer than broad ; dissepiments only at the
forking of the branches and ramuli.
CLADOPHOK.Í pellucida, Kiitz. Phyc. Gen. p. 271.
Co n p e r v a pellucida, Huds. PI. Ang. p. 601. Billw. Conf. t. 90. E. Bot.
1 .1716. Ag. Syst. p. 120. H a n . in Hook. Br. El. vol. ii. p. 357. H a n .
in Mack. M. Hib. part 8. p. 228. Wyatt, Alg. Banm. no. 193. J. Ag.
Alg. Medit. p. 13. Harv. Man. p. 185.
H a b . On the bottoms and sides of deep roek-pools, between tide marks,
generally near low-water mark ; not left dry at low water. Annual ?
Summer. Not uncommon on the shores of England and Ireland.
G e o g r . D i s t r . Atlantic shores of Europe and America. Mediterranean Sea.
Cape of Good Hope, W. H. H.
D e s c r . Boot scutate, firmly attached to the rock. Eilaments from three to six
or eight inches high, thicker than hogs’ bristle, tufted, or subsolitary,
extremely rigid, almost wiry, tough and strong, rising with an undivided
stem to the height of an inch or more, then either forked or trifúrcate, and
afterwards repeatedly branched, at short intervals, in a dichotomous or
trichotomous manner, some specimens being nearly constantly trichotomous,
others dichotomous, and others exhibiting a combination of these methods
of branching. Besides this regular ramification, old and luxuriant specimens
frequently emit from the forkings, or axils, accessory ramuli more
slender than the cells they spring from, but branching in the same manner.
Occasionally these are very numerous and densely tufted. Articulations
one to each interrwde of the branches, many times longer than broad,
cylindrical, filled with dense fluid matter, which is usually dissipated in
drying, when the plant fades to a pale green, preserving a somewhat glazed
lustre, like that of Bryopsis. In drying it adheres very imperfectly to
paper.
It is pleasant in such a genus as Cladophora, where the species
often seem to run insensibly into one another, to find one so
broadly distinguished from the rest that there can be no mistake
about it. The plant here figured is just of this character. Clado-
phora pellucida may at once be known by its veiy distinct