a dark red-brown, sometimes becoming purple
matter soon given out in fresh water, to wuc i i P ‘ offensive
Suhtance very tender and gelatinous, soon decomposing. Odour offensive.
The species here figured, origiually defined by Mr. Dillwyn in
the supplement to Ms work on the British Confervm, appears o
be well understood by most British botanists, who are
familiar with its characters from the exceUent specimens puMished
by Mrs. Wyatt. It is pretty generally dispersed on the Britis
coasts, and must be regarded as one of onr commonest species o
Polysiphonia. I am not clear, however, that it is equally vvel
understood on the continent, and have reason to beheve that it
is known in different places under several different names; but
in the present state of our knowledge of the Polysiphomm, I
have not ventured to bring together any supposed synonyms.
The genus is a very extensive one—and its species put on, at
different ages, a great variety of forms. These, if gathered
isolated one from another, or by persons who are more desirous
of recording novelties than of tracing out the true relations of
vco-etahle forms, may often be made to pass for new species;
while they would, if carefully watched in their place of growth,
soon i)ut on the peculiar characteristics of the type to which they
heloito I know scarcely any genus in which more false species
have Men founded on imperfect specimens than Polysiphonia
and this is saying much in the present day, in winch the practice
has been so largely indulged in, in almost every department ot
botany — hut especially among cellular plants.
The dichotomous fibres which terminate the branches of our
P hbrata and which have given it its name, are by no means
peculiar to it; hut are equally characteristic of the young state
of most if not all, the species of the genus. On some they are
found more abundant and more fully developed than on others,
and in the present plant this is remarkably the case. It is to
these fibres the antheridia are attached, which on P.fihrata are
frequently in great abundance, crowning every branchlet with a
tuft of golden fruit. ^ ___
Fi<r. 1. Tuft of P 1 Tuft of I'OoLlyYsSipiPhuoonNiaii p im a ïa ; — size. 3, A branch
■ foaring antheridia. 3. Apical fibres and anthcndia. 4. A ramnlus with
imbedded tetraspores. 5. Tetraspore. 6. Kamuh with ceramidia. 7. A
cmmidium. 8 Transverse section of the frond 9 Articulations from
?he Tower part of the stem: 10, from the middle: 11, from the upper
part ■.— all more or less magnified.___________