Ser. Riiodosperme^e. Fam. Rhodomelacece. 



Plate I. 



CLAUDEA ELEGANS, Lamour. 



Gen. Char. Frond stipitate ; stipes filiform, merging in the marginal rib, 

 of a flat, unilateral, open network, formed of several series of anasto- 

 mosing, slender leaflets. Fructification : 1, ceramidia, containing, 

 within a membranous pericarp, a tuft of pear-shaped spores ; 2, sti- 

 chidia, formed from the bars of the network, and studded with trian- 

 gularly parted tetraspores, in transverse rows. — Claudea [Lamour.), 

 in honour of Claude Lamouroux, father to the botanist of that name. 



Frons stipite donata. Stipes Jlliformis, mox in costam marginalem reticuli plani, 

 fenestra ti, ex foliolis minutis pluriseriatim secundis uninerviis anastomosan- 

 tibus formati adieus. Fruct. : 1, ceramidia ; 2, stichidia inter trabeculas reti- 

 culi seriata, tetrasporas triangule divisas, transversim ordinatas foventia. 



Claudea elegans ; frond proliferously branched; branches recurved, fur- 

 nished along the upper edge with a scimitar-shaped network, formed 

 of three series of parallel, filiform leaflets ; meshes of the net rectan- 

 gular; margin denticulate; cystocarps inflated, pedicellate. 



C. elegans ; fronde prolifera ; ramis recurvis acinaciformibus nine reticulo uni- 

 laterali ornatis ; reticuli trabeculis triseriatis rectangule anastomosantibus ; 

 margine denticulate- ; cystocarpiis injiatis pedicellatis. 



Claudea elegans, Lamour. in An. Mus. v. 20. p. 121. t. 8. /. 2. Grev. 

 Syn. Alg. p. xlvi. Endl. Syn. p. 50. Harv. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. 

 v. 3. p. 408. t. 20. Kids. Sp. Alg. p. 888. Harv. Alg. Austr. p. 15; 

 Alg. Exsic. Austr. n. 109. 



O'Neillia elegans, Ag. Syst.p. 253; Sp. Alg. v. I. p. 170. 



Fucus Claudei, Turn. Hist. Fuc. t. 243. 



Hab. On rocks, in 5-10 fathoms water ; rarely at extreme low-water mark. 

 On the coast of New Holland, Feron. In the Tamar, above George- 

 town, as far up (at least) as Point Rapid, Mr. Gunn, and other col- 

 lectors, remantle, Western Australia, Geo. Clifton, Esq. 



Geogr. Distr. Not known in any other localities. 



Descr. Root discoid. Fronds tufted, 12-18 inches in length, much branched 

 in a proliferous manner, each new branch springing irregularly from the 

 side of an older branch. In old specimens the stipes is ^ of an inch in 

 diameter, terete, solid and cartilaginous or horny, and subdichotomously 

 branched. The branches soon become filiform, and at about half an inch 

 above their base begin co be furnished along the outer or upper side with a 

 broadly linear open network, and on the lower or inner side with a narrow 

 wing. The branch thus becomes a sort of marginal winged rib or rachis to 

 a unilateral network. This net is formed of three series of very slender, 



