Stuart, W. II. II. — Var. /3. Frequently found growing from the same 

 base as the normal form. Victoria, F. Mueller, W. II. H. Tasmania, 

 Dr. Jeannerett, Mr. Stuart. 



Geogr. Distr. As above. 



Pesck. Boot a large fleshy disc, \ inch or more in diameter. Fronds several 

 from the same base, 1-2 feet long, from half a line to two lines in breadth, 

 compressed and two-edged, thickened in the middle, shortly stipitate, but 

 soon forking, and then excessively divided in a nearly regular dichotomous 

 order. The full-grown fronds are broadly flabelliform ; the segments are 

 all linear, sometimes slightly undulate, quite entire, distichous, and very 

 blunt ; the apex abruptly truncated, but the edges rounded and somewhat 

 thickened. The angles are acute and narrow. Oystocarps are frequently 

 found ; they are at first hemispherical, becoming conical in age, opaque, with 

 very thick walls, composed of vertically seriated, minute, coloured cellules, 

 and contain, on a large, fleshy central placenta, a very dense sporiferous 

 nucleus formed of radiating filaments. Spores very small, roundish. Tetra- 

 spores unknown. Substance very tough and leathery, horny or woody when 

 dry. Structure extremely dense. Colour dark brownish-purple, becoming 

 blackish-brown in drying. It does not adhere to paper. 



The frond in this plant varies very much in breadth and in 

 degree of ramification, but is very constant in all its other cha- 

 racters. All grades of breadth between the narrow and wide 

 forms represented in our figure frequently occur, and I have even 

 seen both very narrow and wide-branched stems arise from the 

 same disc-like root. This necessitates their union under one 

 specific name. I had formerly distributed the narrower varieties 

 (var. #) as a distinct species, under the name M. intermedia ; 

 and at a still earlier period had confounded them with the New 

 Zealand species, M. abscissa. I am now disposed to refer all 

 the numerous forms I possess, whether from Australia or Tas- 

 mania, to M. obtusata. Its narrower varieties are with difficulty 

 distinguishable from M. abscissa, but as the wide form is not 

 found in New Zealand, I retain the latter name for the Melan- 

 thalia of that country. The Australian specimens of " M. Jau- 

 bertiana " will, I believe, fall under the present, and the New 

 Zealand ones under the latter species. 



Fig. 1. Mel an thalia obtusata, — the natural size. 2. Var. fi. intermedia (a 



branch only). 3. Horizontal section of a conccptacle and of a portion of 

 the branch. 1. Some spore-threads from the nucleus : — the two last figures 

 magnified. 



