The Polysiphonia are Algæ, seen in tufts from ten to twelve inches long, of usually much branched jointed filaments, on rocks, corallines, and the smaller Algæ at low water mark. The joints of the filaments contain upright tubes, full of purple or reddish brown matter, which is seen through their transparent walls. The number of these colour tubes vary from four to ten, eighteen, or even twenty, and form the characteristic of the genus. Thus there is a similarity of structure between the Polysiphonia, a genus of the highest order amongst Rhodosperms, and the Griffithsia, which is one of the lowest. The Polysiphonia elongata, which is from six to twelve inches high, has four primary and several secondary colour tubes in the transparent joints of its filaments. Like many of its congeners, this plant does not come to perfection or bear fruit till the second spring. In its youth, it resembles the full grown plant but is smaller, and the colour tubes are not formed in the capillary threads of the tufts, which with many of its branchlets are deciduous, leaving the plant in its naked winter state. With returning warmth, it assumes its perfect form, and in March and April bears fruit, which consists of nuclei in conceptacles, sessile on the branches, either clustered or scattered. The spores are at the top of jointed threads rising from a substance at the base of the nuclei. In some species of this genus, tetraspores only have been found.
The Cryptonemiaceæ are the most numerous and diversified of all the orders of the Rhodosperms. Thirty-five genera are widely dispersed throughout the world, chiefly in the northern hemisphere; twenty-four genera at least occur on the east coast of North America; and fifteen genera have representatives in the British seas. This multitude of generic forms is divided into two groups of gelatinous structure, the one having inarticulate fronds composed of articulate threads closely incorporated, the other membranaceous, formed of cells closely incorporated into a foliaceous expansion. Most of these plants have a stratum of cellular tissue, interposed between a spongy matter in the interior of the frond, and the epiderm or external skin, which for the most part consists of a simple layer of minute cells firmly united by their sides, generally forming a mere film; but it may be thin and flexible, thick, tough, or leathery, according to circumstances.
The Furcellaria fastigiata ([fig. 23] B) has an intermediate layer of cellular tissue between its skin, and a pulpy interior. The frond is cylindrical, smooth, strong, and opaque, repeatedly forked with long narrow forkings. The root is fibrous, and the stem short and tapering. Masses of spores nestle under the skin and swell out the upper forkings, and oblong tetraspores are deeply imbedded in the same.
In the Dumontia filiformis the simple undivided stem and branches are filled with a watery jelly.
The stem of the Chylocladia kaliformis is a cylindrical tube, from four to eighteen inches high, constricted at intervals of half an inch or more into long hollow joints; branches of the very same construction but smaller spring from each constriction either opposite to one another or in whorls; these again have lesser branches, all tapering more or less to each end. The plant, which is of a pink colour fading to greenish yellow, is propagated by tetraspores imbedded in the branches, and by transparent conceptacles sessile on the branchlets, enclosing nuclei containing pyramidal spores. We neither possess the Constantinea rosa marina, nor the C. sitchensis, some of the largest and finest plants of the group, both being inhabitants of high latitudes, but there are some very pretty species on the British coasts. They are supposed to be annuals.
The red dulses belong to the foliaceous and gelatinous part of this order. The Chondrus crispus, or Irish moss, sold as Carrigeen, is very common on rocky coasts in the northern seas. It is from three to eight inches high, and exceedingly varied in form. The frond is thickish, firm, and elastic, with a stratum of cellular tissue under the skin, which is probably much developed, as the plant becomes horny when dried. It is reproduced by tetraspores, in large oval groups scattered all over the surface, often prominent on one side only, and, in some rare instances, spores in prominent oval conceptacles are immersed in the lesser frond divisions. Besides these are warts composed of radiating threads, possibly antheridia, but not made out.
Fig. 26.—A, Rhabdonia Coulteri, portion of nucleus. B, Sphærococcus coronopifolius; portion of nucleus and single spore. C, Wrangelia penicillata, spore threads. D, Cruoria pellita, tetraspores.
The Rhodymeniaceæ are sometimes filiform, but for the most part they are compressed flat cellular fronds, spreading widely from a short delicate stem. They are usually of a blood red, but Rhodymenia palmata, or common Scotch dulse, is of a dark purple. The tetraspores are variously disposed, and simple or compound globular conceptacles containing nuclei are either attached externally to the filiform fronds, or partly immersed in those that are foliaceous. The spores are produced in the joints of moniliform threads within the nuclei, which are sometimes divided into two chambers by threads running from wall to wall. Rhabdonia ([fig. 26] A) belongs to this group.
The Wrangeliaceæ are filiform, many species consisting of a central thread coated more or less with smaller ones, sometimes so disposed as to form a most elegant lacework. Each joint of the stem, branches, and branchlets is beset with whorls of short slender forked and jointed ramuli. They have clusters of spores in stalked capsules. The spore threads of Wrangelia penicillata ([fig. 26] C) are surrounded by a whorl of ramuli composed of radiating pyriform spores arising from the endochrome of terminal cells.