Marine biology -- Great Britain; Seashore; Seashore biology
Our next genus (_Halurus_) contains a common weed of the south coast
which was once included in _Griffithsia_. It is the Equisetum-leaved
Halurus (_H. equisetifolius_), so called because its branches are
regularly whorled round the nodes of the jointed branches, thus
resembling the semi-aquatic Mare’s Tail. Its frond is tubular, and the
spore-clusters are situated on the tips of the branches, surrounded by a
whorl of small branchlets.
The genus _Pilota_ has a slightly flattened cartilaginous frond, divided
pinnately, and the axis surrounded by a cuticle of two layers of cells.
The spore-clusters, at the tips of the branches, are surrounded by a
whorl of branchlets. It contains only two British species, one of which
(_P. plumosa_) is a very feathery species, with comb-like branchlets,
growing on the stems and fronds of other weeds found on our northern
shores. The other (_P. elegans_), with narrower fronds, in long flaccid
tufts, is found all round our coasts.
Our last genus of the _Ceramiaceæ_ is the large and typical one
_Ceramium_, which contains about a dozen British species in which the
frond is threadlike, jointed, branched or forked repeatedly, with the
tips of the branchlets usually curled. The spore-clusters are enclosed
in transparent sessile sacs, surrounded by a whorl of very short
branchlets; and the tetraspores are embedded in the cortex, but
distinctly visible. As a rule the fronds are very symmetrical, and the
branches radiate in a regular fan-like manner.
In one species of the genus the frond is completely covered with cortex
cells, and at each node of the frond there is a single spine which,
although so small as to be invisible without a lens, so effectually
locks the threads together that they form an entangled mass that is not
easily arranged to the satisfaction of the collector. The species
referred to is _C. flabelligerum_--the Fan-bearing Ceramium--and is very
rare except in the Channel Islands.
Other species are armed with one or more spines at the nodes, but the
nodes only are covered with cortex cells, which render them opaque,
while the internodes or joints are transparent. In this group we have
_C. ciliatum_--the Hairy Ceramium, with reddish-purple segments, and a
regular whorl of hairs, directed upwards, round each node; each hair or
spine consists of three segments. This plant is common during the summer
and autumn, and may be found in the tide pools at all levels, either
attached to the rocks or parasitic on other weeds. The same section
contains _C. echinotum_, with rigid, forked fronds, and
irregularly-scattered one-jointed spines; it is common on the south
coast, where it may be found on the rocks and weeds of the upper tide
pools; and _C. acanthonotum_, also common in the rock pools, with a
single strong three-jointed spine on the outer side of each filament.
The last-named weed is found principally on the northern shores,
especially on rocks covered with the fry of the common mussel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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