lucre, as represented at fig. 4. Colour, when in perfection, a purplish red
but very frequently faded into various shades of brownish and greenish
yellow. Suhstance cartilaginous and firm, rather rigid, adhering, but not
strongly, to paper in drying.
By comparing the figure and specific character of this plant
with those of C. rubrum (Plate CLXXXI.), it will be seen that
0. botryocarpum is very closely allied indeed to that species : nor
should I feel disposed, acting on my own judgment, to consider it
as more than a curious state, or variety, with an anomalous fruit.
Mrs. Griffiths is, however, of a different opinion, and so are
Professor Kiitzing and other botanists, to whom specimens have
been submitted. To the decision of such competent observers
I yield so far as to publish a figure, at the same time that I
reserve my original opinion as one which I have not altogether
laid aside.
C. botryocarpum is known from C. ruhrum by its remarkable
fruit, consisting of a great number of favellæ, without involucre,
heaped together like bunches of grapes ; in this respect it agrees
with C. Deslongchampsii. I have, however, occasionally found
solitary, involúcrate favellæ, exactly similar to those of C. rubrum,
on the same plants which produced clustered fruit on most of
their branchlets. The colour is generally darker, and more
purple than in C. rubrum, and the tips of the branchlets are
straight. These are the principal characters on which it is proposed
to establish the species.
C. botryocarpum was discovered by Miss Amelia E. Griffiths in
1844, in great plenty on Preston rocks, a short distance south
of Torquay, and has been gathered every subsequent season in
the same situations and in equal abundance. It is in perfection
in June and July, and begins to decay about the middle of
September.
Fig. 1. Ce r am iu m b o t r y o c a r pu m ;— the natural size. 2. Part of a brancli,
with fertile ramnli. 3. Ramulus with ordinary favellæ. 4. Ramulus witli
an involucrated favella. 5. Ramulus with tetraspores. 6. A tetraspore :—
all more or less maaniii
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