332 Dr. W, H. Harvey on new genera and species of Alga, 



XXX. — Short Characters of some new Genera and Species of Algce 

 discovered on the const of the Colony of Victoria, Australia. 

 By W. H. Harvey, M.D., M.R.I.A. &c., Keeper of the Her- 

 barium of the University of Dublin. 

 [With a Plate.] 



1. Bellotia, Harv. 



Frons filiformis, solida, umbellatim ramosa ; apicibus ramorum 

 fasciculato-comosis. Receptaculum in quoque ramo unicum, cy- 

 lindricum, mediam partem rami circumvestiens, e paranematibus 

 simplicibus, verticalibus, dense stipatis constitutum. Sporce ad 

 paranemata lateraliter dispositse, oblongse, transversim striatse. 



Bellotia Eriophorum, Harv. 



Hab. Cast ashore at the Heads of Pt. Phillip Harbour, and 

 also on Phillip Island, Western Port. Perennial ? 



Root clothed with stuppose filaments. Stems many from the 

 same base, 1 to 2 feet long, twice as thick as hog^s bristle, terete, 

 rigid, somewhat horny, twice or thrice umbellately divided. 

 Umbels of twenty to thirty rays or more, from 3 to 4? or 5 inches 

 apart; the bases of all the rays tomentose, the rest bare and 

 quite smooth. Apices of all the branches crowned with a very 

 dense spherical tuft of brown filaments, | to f inch in diameter. 

 Receptacle cylindrical, developed round each branch, and formed 

 of very densely packed, simple filaments {paranemata) , vertically 

 issuing from all sides of the branch, and whorled round it. This 

 receptacle begins to be formed in the upper half of all the young 

 branches, above the middle, and extends at first nearly to the 

 commencement of the apical tuft ; but as the growth continues 

 the barren portion of the branch above the receptacle consi- 

 derably elongates, and the receptacle, in a full-grown branch, is 

 removed to about the middle portion, where it forms a sausage- 

 shaped swelling nearly 2 inches in length and thrice the dia- 

 meter of the barren branches. The paranemata are quite simple, 

 articulated, cylindrical, their cells three or four times as long as 

 broad, filled with pale olive endochrome. Spores linear- oblong, 

 sessile on the sides of the paranemata, alternate or secund. Svh- 

 stance of the stem and branches rigid ; of the apical tufts soft, 

 and when young somewhat gelatinous. Structure : a cross cut- 

 ting of the stem shows a firm cellular substance composed of 

 minute polygonal cells, set in lines radiating from a central 

 point. 



This very remarkable plant forms quite a new type in rami- 

 fication in the family of the Sporochnoidece, to which it belongs. 

 Except in the colour, which is olivaceous brown, one of its um- 

 bellate branches bears a very striking resemblance to the many- 



