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along the margin, hut destitute of lobes; in others the main frond is onee
or twice forked, one to two inches broad, and more or less furnished with
lateral lanceolate segments, with the margin in every part jagged in a manner
between dentate and ciliate, some of the cilia short and subulate, others
more or less prolonged into lobes, which are themselves dentato-ciliate.
Other specimens have the main frond somewhat palmately parted, the principal
divisions from a quarter to half an inch wide, and closely pinnatifid
with numerous patent laciniæ, as wide as the main division, lanceolate and
dentato-ciliate, acute, and much attenuated at base. The surface of the
frond is either smooth or more or less muricated with cilia. Substance
thick, rigid and crisp when recent, imperfectly adhering to paper in drying.
Colour a deep, full red, semi-transparent when fresh, becoming much darker
in the herbarium. The cells of the interior are oblong or narrow elliptical,
in several rows, rather large and filled with large gi-ains. Twiereles constantly
lodged in the marginal cilia, near the apex, which is turned aside
and projects like the bill of a bird. The sporular mass is beautifully
arranged in moniliform strings, radiating from a central point ; the terminal
cells being at length formed into spores. Tetraspores forming cloud-Hke
stains in various parts of the frond, oblong, transversely zoned.
Hhodymenia ciliata is of a thicker substance, and more rigid
than any other British species of this genus, and is, moreover,
distinguished from all of them, except H.jubata, by the fibrous
character of the root. H. jubata, indeed, was long considered to
be merely an extraordinary variety of H. ciliata until characters
were satisfactorily ascertained by Mrs. Griffiths, which seem permanently
to separate it. These consist in a softer substance, a
duller colour, and a difference in the fructification, and also in
the season at which the plant is in perfection. It is only the
smaller and narrower varieties of H. ciliata which can be confounded
with H. jubata ; the more usual form, which om’ plate
represents, looks abundantly different.
Fig. 1. R hodymenia c il ia ta. 2. A segment in fruit -.— 10111 o f the natural size.
3. Fertile cilia, with tubercles. 4. Section of a tubercle. 5. Strings of
spores, from the same, 6. Longitudinal section of the frond. 7 . Transverse
section. 8. Tetraspores :—all more or h