§7 



This species has hitherto been known in the genus under two names - 1'. arbuscula 

 Mont. and P . granulosus Decaisne, both established in the same year 1842. A comparison of 

 the two original plants proves at once that they are the same species. Montagne's plant (fig. 172) 

 was collected by Dumont d'Urville at the Island of Toud amid the Warrior Reefs in Torres 

 Straits. Decaisne's P. granulosus was founded, as he says (loc. cit.) on " Nesea granulosa Lmx. 

 Uranie. iter. Freycinet. p. 622, tab. 91, fig. 8—9. Hab. in Moluccis". And here we encounter 

 a strange error; for Lamouroux's plant was published and figured as Nesea nodulosa (and not 

 as N: granulosa), and as such it was quoted by Deslongchamps in 1824 — 5 and as N. nedulosa 

 in "Cuvier's Le Règne Animal" (Disciples' Edition) and also as Penicillus nodulosus Blainville 

 in 1834. This last as the oldest specific name must take precedence of the two better known 

 names viz. P. arbuscula Mont. and P. granulosus Decaisne. The latter was published in August 

 1842, and P. arbuscula in the same year; but, which preceded the other, we have failed to 

 discover. The origin of the name granulosus is found in Lamouroux's herbarium; for there, in a 

 cover marked "Naesea granulosa', is the very specimen figured as N. nodulosa by Lamouroux 

 in 1824. And with it are two labels in Lamouroux's MS.: - - 1) "28. Freycinet. Nesea nodulosa'; 

 2) " Nescea granulosa. Freycinet. Baie des chiens marins". Decaisne by a slip employed the MS. 

 name (granulosa) instead of the published name. Subsequent authors have perpetuated the error. 



P. nodulosus is the most easily distinguished species in the genus. Hitherto it has been 

 recorded from the Eastern hemisphere only, where until now it has been the sole represen- 

 tative of the genus. It is readily recognized by the moniliform constrictions of its comal 

 filaments, which are regularly beaded below, irregularly constricted above (figs. 173, 174). In 

 no other species are the constrictions so abundant or so well-defined as here. In some examples 

 of P . capitatus the filaments are slightly beaded ; but the constrictions do not occur in numbers 

 of more than 3 — 4 close together, and they are situated, not at the base, but in the upper 

 part of the filaments. Harvey's PI. XXII in his "Phycologia Australica", Vol. I is good, 

 except in so far as it represents the filaments as being septate. The cortex of the stipes in 

 P. nodulosus is pseudoporose (fig. 175^). 



As regards the development of P. nodulosus, it appears to differ from the West Indian 

 species. These latter apparently form first the stipes, which grows up for some length before 

 producing the normal capitulum. But in P. nodulosus the process is different. Harvey (Phyc. 

 Austral. I. pi. XXII) describes it as follows : — "In the young f rond the stipes consists of 

 "but two or three filaments, and a strata [? state] of the frond occurs in which there is no 

 "stipes, but the moniliform, confervoid filaments arise directly from the matted root-fibres". 

 Young plants are figured by Harvey (1. c), and still younger ones are preserved in Kew Her- 

 barium, which latter entirely confirm what Harvey says. 



The recorded distribution of the species comprises the Molucca Islands and the North 

 and West Coasts of Australia. 



6. Penicillus mediterraneus Thuret 



ex Bornet Alg. de Schousboe in Mém. Soc. Nat. Sci. Cherbourg. XXVII. 1892. p. 217. 

 Syn. Espera mediterranea Decaisne in Ann. Sci. Nat. 2™e sér. torn. XVIII 1S42 p. rii. 



