account is too brief to form a decided opinion upon. Never
having seen a specimen of Mr. Dillwyn’s plant, I am not even
sure of his synonym, though the magnified portion of his figure
is sufficiently like the specimen I have drawn from. Still, his
saying that the plant is “ from three to five inches long,” a size
greatly above that of my specimen, throws a doubt on tbe reference.
As a species, S. fusca (or what I take for it) will rank next
S. cirrhosa, from which it differs by its irregular branching, by
tbe remarkable cruciform scattered ramuli, and sometbing in
colour and in tbe length of the joints. S. cirrhosa is parasitical
on other Algse; but too little is yet known of the history of S.
fusca to say that it is not so. No foreign author appears to be
acquainted with the plant; Agardh having adopted it on the
authority of Dillwyn’s figure.
m
Fig, 1. S p h a c e la r ia FUSCA: a tu ft:— of the natural size. 2. A filament. 3.
Portion of tlie same, with one of the three-forked ramuli:— both magnified.
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