Ser. MelanospermEjE. I am. Fucacea. 



Plate LIII. 



FUCODIUM GLADIATUM, J. Ag. 



Gen. Char. Frond dichotomous, ribless, cylindrical or compressed. 

 Vesicles, when present, innate, simple. Receptacles terminal or late- 

 ral, formed from swollen apices of the branches. Spore-cavities her- 

 maphrodite or polygamous. Spores obovoid, sessile. Paranemata 

 simple. — Fuoodium (/. Ag.), altered from Fucus, and signifying "like 

 a Fucus." 



From dicliotome ramosa, ecostata, cylindracea v. compressa. Vesicula (seepe deji- 

 cientes) innatee, simplices. Receptacula terminalia v. lateralia, succosa, ex 

 apicibus ramorum transmutatis orta. ScapMdia hermaphrodita v. polygama. 

 Spores obovoidece, sessiles. Paranemata simplicia. 



Fucodium gladiatum ; stem terete, compressed upwards, and passing into 

 a fiat, linear, repeatedly dichotomous frond ; ultimate segments very 

 long, ensiform or ligulate, attenuate; vesicles none; receptacles 

 forked. 



F. gladiatum ; stipite terete mox infrondem applanatam Unearem repetite dichoto- 

 mam, desinente ; segmeniis ullimis longissimis ensiformibus ligulatisve attenuates 

 acutis ; vesiculis nullis ; receptaculis furcatis, nunc elongatis dicliotomisque . 



Fucodium gladiatum, Ag. Sp. Alg. v. 1. p. 202. Harv. Alg. Austr. Exsic. 

 n. 33. 



Xiphophora Billardieri, Mont. Pot. Bud, p. 55. t. 7 . /. 1. Hook, et Harv. 

 FJ. Ant. v. 1. p. 176. t. 69./. 3 ; Ft. Nov. Zeal. v. 2. p. 215. 



Himanthalia gladiata, Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 587. 



Fucus gladiatus, Labill. Nov. Holl. v. 2. p. 111. t. 256. Turn. Hist. t. 240. 

 Ag. Sp. Alg. v. 1. p. 97 ; Syst. p. 279. 



Hab. On rocks and stones, near low-water mark. Abundant at Western 



Port, Victoria, and at Port Arthur, Tasmania, W. H. H., etc. 

 Geogr. Distr. South coasts of Australia and Tasmania. New Zealand. 



Descr. Root discoid. Stem, or stipe, nearly terete, soon becoming compressed' 

 and then passing into the base of a compressed or flattened, linear frond. 

 Frond 1-2-3 feet long, linear and dichotomous, but very variable in the 

 degree of ramification, in the breadth of the branches, and in the angles at 

 which the segments issue. In a young state the dichotomies are very fre- 

 quent, and pretty regular, and the ramification is tolerably fastigiate ; but 

 after passing the earlier stages, the branches are more distantly forked, and 

 the ultimate segments, when fully developed, are prolonged to several inches. 

 The breadth varies from one to four or five lines, the narrower forms being 

 much less flattened than the wider. In some states the forked portion of 



