ft]
M ,
ill I:
riau- cxun.
- k M : '
WH.il.d e l.c tlilh . .Keewe ,imp .
Ser. M e la n o s pe em eæ . Pam.
P l a t e CXLIII.
SPHACELARIA SERTULARIA, Bonnem.
G e n . Ch a e . Filaments jointed, rigid, distioliously branched, pinnated;
rarely simple or subdichotomous. Apices of the branches distended,
membranous, ooutaining a dark, granular mass. F ructification; ellipticle
utricles (or spores) furnished with a limbus, borne on the ramuli.
Sph a c e la e ia [Lyngh.),—from a-fiemXos, gangrene, alluding to the
withered tips of the branches.
S ph a c e la e ia Sertularia-, frond slightly shaggy at the base, weak and
slender, irregularly branched ; branches somewhat lanceolate or linear
horizontally patent, tripimiate ; pinnæ alternate, divaricate ; pinnules
very patent, multifld ; axils all very obtuse and wide.
S ph a c e la e ia Sertularia, Bonnem. sec. Lenorm. in Herb.
S ph a c e la e ia filicina patens, ILarv. Man. p. 37.
H ab. Parasitical on various Algæ, in from four to fifteen fathoms water.
Very rare. Perennial. Brighton Beach, M r . Borrer. Torbay,
and other places on the South Coast, M rs. Oriffiths. Isle of Wight,
M iss Kirkpatrick. Jersey, Miss I I . M . White. Carrickfergus, M r.
M ’Calla. Roundstone Bay, W .I I .H .
G eo g e . D is t e . Atlantic shores of Prance, South of England, and Ireland.
D e sc e . Fronds about an inch, rarely two inches high, very slender, growing in
irregular, somewhat matted patches or tufts, among the branches of other
Algæ, more or less connected at base by curled brown fibres, more or less
regularly pinnate, or somewhat naked below and producing at the apex
numerous branches spreading like a fan. -Branches linear, hnear-lanoeolate,
or oblong, closely tripinnate throughout, the pinnæ very unequal in length,
long and short ones sometimes alternating ; at other times most of the central
pinnæ are of equal length, those near the top and bottom being much
shorter. Pinnce horizontally patent, alternate, bipinnate below, more or less
tripinnate above, the two lowermost pinnæ given oft' from the upper side of
the rachis before any issue from the lower. Pinnules issuing at every
second joint, horizontally patent or divaricate, pinnato-multifid, their ultimate
divisions linear, obtuse, patent. Articulations about as long as broad,
3-4-striate, the striæ less numerous in the younger parts ; the ultimate
ramuli mono-siphonous. Colour an olive-green. Substance rigid, scarcely
adhering to paper. The apices of the branches are frequently much produced,
sphacelate, containing a dark coloured granular mass.
It is, I allow, with some hesitation that I offer a figure of the
present plant as anything more than a deep-water variety of
Sphacelaria filicina, analogous to somewhat similar varieties of
several other Algæ, individuals of which, when growing at a more
VOL. I I . G
A '
i i