384 Transactions. — Botany. 



Order Corallineae. 



418. Melobesia carpophylli, Heydrich, Deutschen botanischen 



Gesellschaft, 1893. 

 Bay of Islands : Heydrich. 



419. Lithophyllum (Melobesia) antarctica, Hook, and Harv., Fl. 



Ant., p. 482. 

 Riverton : R. M. L. 



Art. XLII. — On the New Zealand Species of Ceramiacese. 



By Robert M. Laing, B.Sc, 



[Bead before the Philosophical Institute of Canti rbury, 2nd Noremlier. 1904.] 



Plates XXIV.- XXXI. 



Part I. 



Since the publication of the " Handbook of the New Zealand 

 Flora " in 1864, the work done upon the New Zealand species 

 of seaweeds has been scattered through scientific books and 

 journals appearing in Sweden, Germany, France, and Eng- 

 land. It is ray object in this paper to give short diagnostic 

 descriptions of all the species of the family Ceramiacem found 

 in New Zealand, thus enabling the New Zealand student to de- 

 termine without unnecessary difficulty the name of any species 

 he may find. A bibliography of the subject will be found as 

 an appendix to Part II. of this paper. I have clearly indicated 

 what organs of reproduction are known, so that any future 

 worker will be able at once to recognise whether any that he 

 may find have been hitherto described or not. The family 

 Ceramiacew in New Zealand is moderately well known, but still 

 presents many difficulties to the investigator, the lack of type 

 specimens in our museums often proving an insuperable bar to 

 absolute certainty of identification. I have chiefly followed 

 Engler and Prantl's " Pflanzenfamilien " in the description of 

 the genera, and the accounts of some of the species are based 

 upon the " Epicrisis Floridearum" of J. G. Agardh ; but in most 

 cases I have had specimens of my own.* from an examination of 

 which I have been able to give descriptions that are often to a 

 large extent new. I have presented to the Canterbury Museum 

 examples of such species as were procurable and not already 

 represented in it. It is too much to hope, in the absence of type 

 specimens, that my identifications of Harvey's species have in 

 all cases been successful, but I trust that my descriptions are at 



* I have to thank Mr. J. Crosby Smith, of Invercargill, for irenerously 

 placing at my disposition his large collection of Ceramiacea from southern 

 Otago. 



