Ser. Chlobosperme2E. Fam. Basycladea. 



Plate XL 



POLYPHYSA PENICULUS, Ag. 



Gen. Char. Root scutulata. Frond pencil-like. Stipes cylindrical, uni- 

 cellular, nodulose, crowned with a tuft of obovoid, saccate, unicellu- 

 lar raniuli, filled with grumous endochrome. Spores spherical, formed 

 out of the contents of the raniuli. — Polyphysa {Lamarck), from 

 iro\v, many, and cpvcra, a sac. 



Radix scutata. Frons penicilliformis. Stipes cylindraceus, unicellulosus, no- 

 dosus, apice ramulis vesicceformibus obovoideis membranaceis succo grumoso 

 repletis coronatus. Sporce globosce, perisporio liyalino rigide membranaceo 

 donatte, ex succo ramidorum demum evolutce. 



Polyphysa Peniculus ; stipes thinly incrusted with calcareous matter, the 

 nodes swollen and pierced with a ring of small holes; ramuli broadly 

 obovate. 



P. Peniculus; stipite calcareo-incrustato, nodis turgidis annulo foraminum per- 

 tusis; ramulis late obovalis. 



Polyphysa Peniculus, Ag. Sp. Alg. v. 1. p. 473. Ag. Sgst. p. 192. Harv. 

 in Trans. R. I. Acad. v. 22. p. 564. Harv. Alg. Austr. Exsic. n. 565. 



Polyphysa aspergillosa, Lamour. Pol. Flex. p. 252. Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 17. 

 Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 510. 



Polyphysa australis. Lamarck, MS. in Mus. Par. (fide Lamour.) 



Pucus Peniculus, R. Br. in Turn. Hist. Fuc. t. 228. 



Hab. On old shells of bivalve and univalve mollusca, between tide-marks. 

 Princess Royal Harbour, King George's Sound, Br. R. Brown, 

 IF. LL. H., etc. Port Lincoln, Mr. Wilhelmi. 



Geogr. Distr. South-western Australia. 



Descr. Root a minute disc, showing a faint tendency to throw out clasping 

 fibres. Stipes 1-2 inches in height, about the thickness of hogs' bristles, 

 of an opaque white colour, and thinly covered with a smooth coating of 

 carbonate of lime, tubular, formed of a single, long, cylindrical cell, marked 

 at short intervals with rings of small holes, the tube being widened at each 

 ring so as to divide the stipes into spaces resembling internodes or articu- 

 lations. There is however no diaphragm at the spurious node, and conse- 

 quently the jointed appearance is merely superficial. The holes are probably 

 indicative of a whorl of byssoid ramelli, which possibly accompany the evo- 

 lution of the stipes, but which have not as yet been observed : we infer 

 their existence from the analogy of Acetabularia, where such ramelli, on 

 falling away, leave similar traces. At the summit of the stipes, just above 

 the last row of holes, is borne a tuft, 8-12 obovoid ramelli, each formed of 



