\ W.H.H. deLsLHUi, R e e v e , imp .
P l a t e CXLII.
SPHACELARIA FILICINA, Ag.
Gen . C h a e . Eilaments jointed, rigid, distioliously branched, pinnated;
rarely simple or subdichotomous. Apices of the branches distended,
membranous, containing a dark granular mass. Fructification ; elliptical
utricles (or spores) furnished with a limbus, borne on the ramuli.
— S p h a c e l a e i a {Lyn g h ), o-fiaKeXos, gangrene, alluding to the withered
tips of the branches.
Sph a c e la e ia filicina-, frond shaggy at the base, slender, irregularly
branched; branches lanceolate, erecto-patent, bi-tri-pinnate; pinnæ
alternate, erect; pinnules multifld, lanceolate; axils aU very acute
and narrow.
Sph a o b ia b ia filicina, Ag. Syst. p. 166. Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 23. Haro, in
Hook. Br. FI. vol. Ü. p. 323. Mont. Crypt. Alg. no. 24. Menegh. Alg. Ital.
et Balm. g. 324. H a n . Man. g. 31. J. Ag. Alg. Medit. g. 30. Fndl. 3rd.
Suppl. p. 23. Mont. FI. Alg. p. 41. Wyatt, Alg. Banm. n. 170.
Sph a c e la e ia hypnoidcs, Greo. Scott. Orypt. FI. t. 348.
Sph a c e la e ia simpliciuscula, Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 31.
H a lo pt e e is filicina, Kiitz. Fhyc. Gen. p. 293.
Ce eamium fihcinum, Gratel. Journ. Med. vol. iv. p. 33,
H a b . O n rocks and nuUipores near low-water mark, and at the roots of
Laminaria, he,. Very rare. Perennial. Ikniting in Winter. Plymouth,
M r . Sconce. Ilfracombe, Mrs. Griffiths and Mrs. Hare. Salcombe,
Mrs. Wyatt. Jersey, M iss Turner and M iss White. Mount’s Bay,
Cornwall ; and Holyhead, Anglesea, M r . B a lfs . BeKast Bay, Mr.
W. Thompson. Youghal, M iss B a ll. Kinsale Harbour, L r . J . R .
Harvey.
Geogk. D is t e . Atlantic shores of France and Spain. Mediten-anean Sea.
D e so e . Fronds two to four inches high, slender, more or less clothed at the
base with curled brown fibres, irregularly and sparingly divided ; branches
distichous, erect, often bearing at then- summit numerous lesser branches
displayed like a fan; sometimes naked, sometimes regularly pinnated
throughout. Branches linear-lanceolate in outline, the uppermost and
lowermost pinnæ generally shorter, those in the middle longer, with now
and then two or three of much gi-eater length than those immediately
adjoining. Pinnæ alternate, erecto-patent, bi-pinnate, or tri-piunate below,
with two pinnules constantly given off from the upper side of the rachis
before any issue from the lower side. Pinnules issuing at evei-y second
joint, very erect, at first simple and subulate, afterwards pinnato-multifid,
their ultimate divisions subulate and appressed. Fructification produced
on the young pinnules while yet simple, a single obovate spore
forming in the axil of the pinnule. Articulations half as long as broad,
multi-striate ; the striæ less evident in the younger parts of the frond. A
cross section of the stem shows four large central oeUs, destitute of endochrome,
surrounded by numerous, coloured cellules. Colour a more or less
greenish olive. Substance rigid, scarcely adhering to paper.