CLAUDEA ELEGANS. 409 
what inflated, mammilleform, furnished with a perforated 
nipple, and they contain a dense globular mass of pyriform 
sporidia fixed to the apices of filaments which issue from a 
central placenta. They are placed at the apex of short, 
secund ramuli which spring from the lower part of the rachis 
of a leaf; or, morphologically speaking, the pectinate ribs of 
What should normally be a fenestrated leaf, destitute of con- 
necting bars, are shortened, widened and inflated on one side 
near the apex, but below the extreme point ; and produce from 
à point on their midrib, within the inflated portion, a cluster 
of sporidia; the inflated portion forming, as above described, 
the membranous pericarp of the keramidium. Sometimes 
the whole leaf is converted into a raceme of such pedicellated 
capsules, and sometimes of two leaves which arise from the 
same point of the stem, one is entirely changed into capsules, 
the other developed into a faleate net-work as in other parts 
of the plant. 
It appears to me that Mr. Agardh, Jun. is correct in refer- 
ring Claudea to the Rhodomelee, notwithstanding some minor 
discrepancies, which have induced M. Decaisne to place it in 
à separate family which he calls Anomalophyllee. The kera- 
midium described above bears a very strong resemblance to 
that of Dasya, and though the vegetation of Claudea is very 
Temarkable, yet its structure is not so anomalous as at first 
Sight it seems to be, nor do I think the mere circumstance 
of its ramuli being united into a net-work sufficient of itself 
fo constitute a distinct family. It is on a difference in fruc- 
tification, however, that M. Decaisne chiefly insists; and 
certainly he has had much fuller opportunities of studying 
the stichidia than I possess, and to these organs he appears 
to. attribute a higher place in classification than to the kera- 
midia; for I find that he separates Dasya from the neigh- 
urhood of Polysiphonia, to associate it with Callithamnion. 
Ms does not appear to me a natural arrangement while such 
@ plant as Polysiphonia byssoides exists, which presents the 
stem and fruit of a Polysiphonia, with the single tubed, 
byssoid ramuli of Dasya. 
VOL. Ir. 2 HH 
