Desck. Root branching, matted. Fronds densely tufted, 12-14 inches long or 

 more, about \ line in breadth, everywhere preserving nearly the same width, 

 compressed, two-edged, simple or forked, naked below, decompound-pinnate 

 above. Pinnae opposite or alternate, sub-horizontally patent, 6-8 inches long, 

 the pairs distant or crowded, sometimes fasciculate, naked in their lower 

 half, more or less regularly pinnulated above the middle. The pinnules, 

 like the pinnas, are normally opposite, but are irregularly suppressed, often 

 scattered, and nearly as often crowded about the summits or fasciculate ; 

 they are filiform, slightly attenuated towards the point, one or two inches 

 long, very patent, simple or forked. In fertile specimens the pinnules are 

 thickly fringed with minute, horizontal ramuli, less than a line in length, at 

 first filiform, afterwards changing in shape according to the sort of fructi- 

 fication they bear. Those that are to enclose conceptacles become lanceolate, 

 acuminate to a sharp point, and the conceptacle is lodged in their middle, 

 and prominent to both surfaces. Those that bear tetraspores are spathulate 

 and obtuse, having a cluster of tetraspores in the widened part. The 

 colour is a dark purplish-red, becoming brighter after long immersion in 

 fresh-water, and fading, through scarlet and orange, to cream-white on ex- 

 posure. The substance is very tough, becoming rigid and horny when dry, 

 in which state the plant does not adhere to paper. 



Not an uncommon species on the coast of Victoria and the 

 northern shores of Tasmania ; and among the larger species of 

 the genus. Whether it be distinct from the true G. asperum, 

 Mert., as described by J. Agardh, appears doubtful ; but it is 

 very different from the plant distributed in my Alg. Aust. Exsic. 

 under that name. The latter approaches G. corneum; perhaps 

 too nearly. I have never seen authentically marked specimens 

 of G. aspermn, Mert. 



Our G. glandulafolivm varies greatly in ramification, being 

 sometimes nearly naked, and sometimes regularly pinnated. 

 The specimen figured may be regarded as a fair example of the 

 typical form. 



G. corneum, in three or four of its recognized varieties, occurs 

 on various parts of the Australian coast, but being a well- 

 known plant of cosmopolitan distribution, will not be figured in 

 the present work. 



Fig. 1. Gelidium GLANDULiEFOLiUM, — the natural size. 2. Part of a pinnule, 

 with conceptacles in the bristle-shaped ramuli. 3. A section of a con- 

 ceptacle, showing the spores attached to the medial dissepiment. 4. Part 

 of a ramulus, with tetraspores immersed in the dilated ramuli. 5. A ramu- 

 lus, with its sorus of tetraspores. 6. Tetraspores from the same : — the 

 latter figures more or less magnified. 



