Ser. Melanosperme/e. Fam. Chordariacere. 



Plate LVIII. 



MYRIOCLADIA SCIURUS, Haw. 



Gen. Chae. Frond cylindrical, branched, consisting of a tubular or solid 

 axis formed of interwoven filaments, clothed externally with radiating, 

 free, branched peripheric filaments. Spores obovate, borne on the 

 radiating filaments. — Myriocladia (/. Ag.) } from pvptos, a thousand, 

 and icXahos, a branch. 



Frons cylindracea, ramosa ; axl contlnuo tubuloso v. solido ex filis intertextis' 

 formato, filisque periphericis liberis ramosls radiantibus vestito ; sporce ob- 

 ovoidece, in axilla filorum radiantium sessiles. 



Myriocladia Sciurus ; frond solid, subsimple or alternately branched ; 

 branches worm-like, attenuate at base, very long, simple ; peripheric 

 filaments elongate, branched at base, nearly cylindrical ; articulations 

 shorter than their breadth, slightly contracted at the joints. 



M. Sciurus ; froude solida sabsimplici v. alterne ramosa ; ramis vermiformibus 

 longissimis simplicibus villosis basi attenuatis ; filis periphericis elongatis basi 

 ramosis vix moniliformibus ; articulis diametro brevioribus ad genicula parum 

 constrictis. 



Myriocladia Sciurus, Harv. Alg. Auslr. Exsic. n. 90. 



Hab. On stones, near low-water mark. At Port Pairy, Victoria, and at 

 Newcastle, New South Wales, W. II. H. 



Geogr. Distr. South and east coasts of Australia. 



Descr. Root a conical disc. Frond 1-2 feet long, two lines in diameter, at first 

 simple, afterwards emitting alternate or irregularly scattered branches, simi- 

 lar to the primary frond, and always quite simple. The branches frequently 

 issue only near the base of the main trunk, and are 12-14 inches long, 

 and generally bare of ramuli ; but in old specimens a few ramuli are 

 sometimes given off. Every portion of the frond is thickly clothed with 

 long, free, villous, hair-like filaments ; these are branched at base, the 

 branches simple and thread-like, coloured, and articulated ; the articulations 

 somewhat contracted at the septa, and shorter than their diameter. No 

 fruit has been seen. The substance of the axis is firmly gelatinous or 

 somewhat cartilaginous, very elastic and slippery, and in drying the plant 

 adheres most closely to paper. The colour is a dark-olive, with a fulvous 

 hue in the peripheric filaments. 



The figure here given represents a young and comparatively 



