338 Dr Greville's Neiu Species of Marine Algce. 



Plate IX. Fig. 1. — Portion of a plant of Scaheria Agardhii, 

 nat. size. 2. A leaf seen in profile. 3. A leaf as seen from beneath. 

 4. A leaf shewing its upper and warty surface. 5. Warts. — 

 Magn. 



Among the many singular marine productions already described 

 from the coasts of New Holland, the present alga stands con- 

 spicuous. At first sight, it has more of the aspect of a 

 Salicornia than of any known cryptogamous plant ; and even the 

 vesicles, generally so characteristic in other individuals of the 

 family, look rather like the fruit of a more highly organized vege- 

 table. The fructification of this most extraordinary marine plant 

 was unfortunately not discovered by Mr Fraser ; and our account 

 must therefore be necessarily imperfect. At the same time I am 

 not aware of any plant with which it can be generically associated. 

 My friend Agardh, indeed, was of opinion that it might possibly 

 be ranked along with PolypJiacum proliferum (^Osmundaria prO' 

 lifera^ Lamour.) Of that plant, indeed, we know but little ; but 

 that little is, I conceive, sufficient to keep it apart, the habit 

 being totally different, and the frond destitute of vesicles. The 

 only circumstance in which they accord, is the curious wartiness 

 of the surface. 



h -Dlin Gracilaria. — Grev. Alg. Brit. p. 121. -; 72"- * 



G. pumila ; fronde cylindrica filiformi cartilaginea dichotoma, 

 ram is divaricatis obtusis, capsulis immersis solitariis subter- 

 minalibus. 



Hab. Coast of the Swan River settlement, New Holland.— 

 Fraser, 



Plants tufted and parasitic upon the larger algae. Ttoot^ a 

 minute disk, throwing out occasionally one or two fibres. Fronds^ 

 many from the same base, one to two inches long, terete, 

 filiform, repeatedly branched in a dichotomous manner ; the 

 branches divaricated, obtuse. Fructification : 1. Capsules im- 

 bedded in the substance of the frond, mostly at the summit of 

 each ultimate division, and containing a spherical mass of 

 roundish-ovate seeds : 2. Simple or compound (never ternate) 

 granules, imbedded in the swollen apices on distinct individuals. 

 Substance, cartilaginous, somewhat transparent. Colour, a pale 

 pinkish red, becoming darker when dried. 



Fig. 1. A plant of Gracilaria pumila, nat. size. 2. Summit of 

 a branch, with capsule. 3. Seeds. 4. Summit of a branch, 

 with imbedded granules. 5. Portion of a horizontal slice, with 

 imbedded granules. 6. Granules both simple and compound, 

 '(never ternate.) — Magn. 



This little plant, in its outline and general appearance, when 

 dry, is very like Microcladia glandulosa mihi ; but in its recent 

 «tate, has the semitransparent succulent aspect of the Laurentice 

 and Gracilarice. From Gigartina concinna, to which also it 



