408 CLAUDEA ELEGANS. 
A Few Remarks on CLAU DEA ELEGANS; by W. H. Harvey, 
M.D. M.R.LA. 
(With a Plate—Tab. XX. 
Of all the marine Alge there is none to which a greater 
interest attaches than to the Claudea elegans of Lamouroux, 
(Fucus Claudei, Turn. Hist. Fuc. t. 243.) Its extreme rarity, 
the great length of time which has elapsed since the only 
specimens hitherto seen in Europe were gathered by the 
unfortunate Peron, and the uncertainty so long attached to 
its exact Aabitat—(* on the coast of New Holland" being 
rather a vague direction) :—these circumstances, combined 
with its beauty and extraordinary structure, have long made 
it to Sir William J. Hooker and myself the Algological trea- 
sure that we most wished to possess. Our delight may then 
be imagined when in a parcel which has just reached Sir 
William from Ronald Gunn, Esq., we find three fine speci- 
mens of Claudea elegans, two of them bearing an abundance 
of capsular fruit (or keramidia). One of these specimens, Sir 
William has, with his usual kindness, presented to me, and 
as the capsular fruit of Claudea has never before been seen 
by botanists, a short description of it, with an accompanying 
figure, may be interesting. 
The three specimens now received from Mr. Gunn were 
gathered by him in January, 1843, on the coast near George 
Town, Van Diemen's Land. Besides these, I only know 
that two others exist in Europe, one in the Paris Herbarium, 
from which Turner’s plate was drawn, the other in the rich 
collection of Robert Brown, Esq. These latter specimens 
are plentifully sprinkled over with spherosporous fructification 
(stichidia), as figured by Turner and Lamouroux, and des- 
cribed by various other authors. Our specimens on the 
contrary are, two of them furnished with sporideous mt 
cation (Keramidia); the other is scarcely in fruit, but in one 
of its leaves there are two spherosporous receptacles, ok 
stichidia. is 
The Keramidia or capsules are large, membranous, Or 
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