V. SPHJ5R0C0CC0IDE.E. 99 



divisions are more erect, these expand into frondlcts of similar shape to the original, 

 being at first simple, then forked, and at lengtli repeatedly dichotomous. The mid- 

 rib is formed of a triple row of cylindrical cells of equal length ; the membrane, of 

 hexagonal cells set in lines extending obliquely from the midrib to the margin, and 

 gradually of smaller size as they recede from the midrib. The concepfades are very 

 rare, and are formed at the expense of the rootlike process at the furcations. They 

 contain within a thin wall strings of conoidal spores borne on a large cellular, basal 

 placenta. Tetraspores are more frequently found, and occupy the summits of the 

 leaves, where they are set in obliquely ascending lines. Colour a livid purple, 

 fading to green. Substance membranous, not very closely adhering to paper in 

 drying. 



A very distinct and curious little species of a colour most unusual in this genus, 

 recalling forcibly the colour of the Bostrychice, plants found in similar situations. 

 I have only seen conceptacles in one or two specimens from Cooper River, but 

 tetraspores are common in Westpoint individuals. These latter are more slender 

 and much more attenuate at the apices than those from Charleston ; a circumstance 

 to be anticipated not merely from the difference of climate, but chiefly from the 

 large admixture of fresh water in the stream of the Hudson at sixty miles above 

 its mouth. 



Plate XXII. C. Fig. 1. Delesseria Leprieurii, the natural size. Fig. 2, a branch 

 to show ramifications and rootlets ; Jig. 3, apex of a branchlet, to show the struc- 

 ture ; Jig. 4, portion with a conceptacle formed ; Jig. 5, vertical section of a concepta- 

 cle ; Jig. 6, spores ; all more or less highly magnijied. 



BOTRYOGLOSSUM. Kiitz. 



Frond purplish red, with an opaque, cartilaginous stem expanding upwards into 

 an irregularly cleft, coriaceo-membranaceous, areolated lamina, traversed in the 

 lower part by an obsolete, vanishing midrib. Conceptacles scattered, sub-hemi- 

 spherical, with a prominent orifice ; placenta basal, crowned with a pulvinate tuft 

 of moniliform spore-threads, whose terminal cells are earliest ripened. Tetraspores 

 tri-partite, grouped in definite spots or sori, occupying portions of the frond or 

 lodged in accessory leaflets. 



Under this genus I mcXxxHc, Neiiroglossum, Kiitz. which merely differs iromBotryo- 

 glossum of the same author in having its tetraspores lodged in intra-marginal sori 

 instead of in foliaceous marginal processes, a character which I consider of such 

 minor importance that I am not sure that it is even of specific value, much less 

 generic. In Delesseria sinuosa, Nitophgllum laceratum, and even in our Botryoglossum 



2 o 



