Ser. Rhodosperme^. Fam. Gelidiacece. 



Plate LXIV. 



EUCHEUMA SPECIOSUM, /.^y. 



Gen. Char. Frond shrub-like, carnoso- cartilaginous, horny when dry, 

 spiny or tubercled, solid, composed of three strata ; the medullary 

 stratum, of densely interwoven, elongated, anastomosing, longitudinal 

 filaments; the intermediate, of several layers of roundish, angular 

 cells, gradually smaller outwards ; the cortical, of minute, coloured 

 cellules set in radiating filaments, at right angles to the axis. Frnc- 

 tification : 1, coticepfacles subglobose, sessile on the ramuli, contain- 

 ing, within a very thick pericarp, a central placenta (becoming hollow 

 in the middle), to which tufts of spore-threads are attached ; spores 

 seriated or solitary, oblong or subpyriform; 2, zonate ietraspores, 

 immersed in the cortical stratum. — Eucheuma (/. J^.), from ev, 

 intensitive, and x^'^f^^^ ^^^^^ ''^'^V ^^ melted ; because the species may 

 be dissolved to a jelly. 



Frons frutlcosa, carnoso-cartilaginea, siibcornea, immerse costata, spinosa v. 

 papulosa, tripUcl strata constituta ; medullarl filis elonrjatis intertextis 

 anastomosantlbits ; intermedia cellulis rotimdato-angulatis extiis minoribus ; 

 corticali cellulis minutis in jilavertlcalia conjunctis. Fnict. : 1, ci/stocarpia 

 subglobosa, sessilia, inter pericarpium crassiim fila sporifera fascicidata ex 

 placenta centrali emissa foventia ; sporis subseriatis, ovalibus v. pyriformibus ; 

 2, tetrasporcB zonatim divisce, sparsce. 



Eucheuma speciosum ,- frond polymorphous, terete or compressed, irregu- 

 larly constricted or nodose, subdichotomous ; branches tapering at 

 base, thickest in the middle, once or twice compound, beset on all 

 sides with slender, setaceous, simple or branched processes, or tuber- 

 culated ; conceptacles mostly terminating the filiform ramenta, spinous 

 or papillate. 



E. speciosum ; fronde polymorpha tereti v. compressa constricta v. nodosa suh- 

 dichotoma ; ramis basi angustatis medio incrassatis ramosis ramidis setaceis 

 indefinitis tubercidisve plus minus obsessis ; cystocarpiis papulosis ramulos 

 scepius terminantibus . 



Eucheuma speciosum, /. Jg. Sp. Alg.v. 1. p. 629. Harv. Alg. Austr. Exsic. 

 n. 347. 



GiGARTiNA speciosa, Sond. PI. Preiss. v. 2. p. 175. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 751. 

 Hab. Cast ashore from deep water. Ereraantle and Rottnest Island, 



Western Australia, Preiss, JF. H. II., etc. 

 Geogr. Distr. Western Australia. 



