two inches in length. Fmctijication ; minute, depressed, sphcrieai favellidia,
immersed iii the substance of the frond, and scattered througli its upper
segments, each with a pale margin, and filled with very numerous spores.
2, roundish or irregularly shaped warU (iiemathecia), sessile on the frond,
and densely scattered over its surface, wholly composed of vertical,
dicliotomous, moniliform filaments. Substance cartilaginous and firm,
rather thin. Colour a deep, but dull, blood-red, paler, and more pinky in
the younger parts. In drying, it does not adhere to paper.
The first account of this species is given by Bishop Gunner
in his Flora Norvegica, if, indeed, the synonym of that author be
correctly referred by Turner to this place ; a fact which has been
more than once suspected, many believing that the piant represented
by Gunner is only a variety of C. crispus. Mr. Dillwyn
was the first to detect it on the British shores, as well as the first
to notice the nemathecia-fructification, which is the only kind
described by Turner, and is much more generally produced than
the tubercles ; indeed, it is very rare to find a piant destitute of
nemathecia. The tubercles have, I believe, only been found by
Mrs. Griffitlis at Torquay, and by her but seldom. They are at
once distinguished from the nemathecia by their more regular
form, and the colourless limb which surrounds them ; and ,by
being evidently immersed in the substance of the frond.
Chondrus Norvégiens, if it be identical with the northern plant
described by Gunner, is singularly unfortunate in its specific
name, as it is much more common to the south of Norway than
in that country. Even in England, it is very much more abundant
on the south coast, and occurs still more frequently on the shores
of Erance and Spain, and in the Mediterranean. Though with a
general resemblance to C. crispus, there is something in the tone
of its colour, tlie divaricated laciniæ, and the rounded axils and
apices that render it easy to be recognised, independently of the
difference in fructification. The species most nearly allied to it
is C. crenulatus, a native of Portugal, which may probably yet be
added to the British list.
Fig. 1. Chondrus N orveoicus :—o f the natural size. 2. Portion of a frond witli
favellidia. 3. Section oi afavellidium. 4. Spores from the same. 5. Portion
of a frond with nemathecia. 6. Section of a nemathe.cmm. 7. Filament from
the same:—all more or less highly magnified.
iJ 'l
t i