The English flora - SeaweedAfrica

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Griffithsia.] ALGJE CONFERVOlDEiE. 337
Name; 2*vpis, a basket; in allusion to the appearance of the re-
ceptacles.
1. S.fHamentosa, Harv. (hairy Spyridia)—JPucusjilamentosus,
Wulfen.— Ceramiumffiamentosum, Ag. Sp. Ahj. p. 141— Conferva
Griffithsiana, E. Bot. t. 2312.
Southern shores of England. Southampton, Miss Biddulph. Torbay
and Sidmonth, Mrs, Griffiths.— Stems tufted, many rising from a
broadly expanded disk, thick, 2— G inches high, irregularly branched,
cartilaginous, densely cellular wii.li an obscure appearance of articula-
tion ; branches beset \s ith .short, hair-like, simple or subdivided, scattered
ramuli. Colour a light-red, fading to dull-brown. A highly curious
plant, with the habit and structure of Ceramium, but approaching
Calithumnion or Griffithsia in its fruit. It is found in the Indian and
Pacific Oceans, as well as in the Mediterranean and British Seas.
63. Griffithsia. Ag. Griffithsia.
Filaments articulated throughout, mostly dichotomous; dissepiments
hyaline. Fructification double:— 1. clustered cap-
sules with hyaline pericarps ; 2. roundish, gelatinous, involucrated
receptacles (favellcc), including minute granules.—Named
in honour of Mrs. Griffiths of Torquay, Devonshire, to whose
numerous discoveries and accurate observations, the marine
botany of Great Britain is indebted for much of its present
advancement.
* Branches ivhorled with ramuli.
1. G. equisetifolia, Ag. (imbricated Griffithsia); filaments in-
crassated whorled with dichotomous incurved imbricated ramuli.
Conferva equisetifolia, JJillic. Conf. t. 54.
— G. equisetifoliaf Ag. Sj>. Alg. v. 2. p. 133.
E. Bot. t. 1479.
Abundant on the shores of England and the west of Ireland.
in Scotland. Firth of Forth, very rare, Mr. Fatten.— — 12
Rare
inches
high, ven robust, much branched; branches denselj clothed with
whorls of short ramuli, gradually tapered. Colour a deep-red. The
fruit of this species i> involved in much uncertainty. Dillwyn describes
it as consisting of seeds, immersed in a pellucid jelly and Burrounded by
numerous filaments, which wholly envelop it. It was scattered over the
branches and appeared to the naked eye like rery youn Ibis
was detected bj tin' A'"-. (J. /»'. Leathes, at Yarmouth. Mr. Borrer finds
" little yellowish-brow n oblong bodies, each BUITOUOded b\ a pellucid
limbllSj Scattered plentifully on the internal face v{ the ramuli of one
specimen." On another specimen, he observed "minute pale-pink
tufts, which appeared to grow, some laterally on the branches and some
on the vcrtieillatc ramuli, whilst Others terminated small young bram Ins.
The highest power of the microscope proved them to consii I
6
, sometimes solitary, more frequently
appearing clustered. These are globular, some of them darkred
throughout, without a limbus; others with a ren wide limbus, the
colouring matter forming merely a central speck." llrr. \n litt.
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