Ser. Ehodosperme^e. ' Fam. Rhodomelacea. 



Plate LXI. 



CLAUDEA BENNETTIANA, Haw. 



Gen. Char. Frond stipitate ; stipes filiform, merging in tlie marginal rib 

 of a flat, unilateral, open network, formed of several series of anasto- 

 mosing, slender leaflets. Fructification : 1, ceramidia containing 

 within a membranaceous pericarp a tuft of pear-shaped spores ; 3, sti- 

 chidia formed from the bars of the network, and studded with trian- 

 gularly parted tetraspores in transverse rows.' — Ci;Audea [Lamoiir.), 

 in honour of Claude Lamouroux, father of the botanist of that name. 



Frons stipite donata. Stipes filiformis, moxin cosiani niarginaleni reticidi plani 

 feuedrati, ex foliolis minutis pluriseriatim-secmidis uninerviis anastomosantihus 

 formati, abiens. Fruct. : 1, ceramidia ; 2, sticMdia inter trahecidas reticidi 

 seriata, tetrasporas triangule divisas ti'ansversim ordinatas foventia. 



Claudea Bennettiana ; frond stipitate, shortly acinaciform, lobato-dentate, 

 oblique, unilateral, with a short recurved marginal rib, and numerous 

 secondary ribs digitately radiating from the primary, and dividing the 

 network into cuneate areas ; primary leaflets of each area parallel, the 

 secondary and tertiary decussately anastomosing, repeatedly divided ; 

 meshes of the net acutangular. 



C. Bennettiana ; fronde (unciali) stipitata breviter acinaciformi lobulato-den- 

 tata obliqua mulaterali casta brevi margiuali costulisqiie pluribus a casta digi- 

 tatim radiantibus instructa, reticulum in areas cuneatas designantibus ; foliolis 

 primariis parallelis, secimdariis decussatim anastomosantibus repetite divisis ; 

 angulis omnibus acntis. 



Hab. Once dredged in the Paramatta river, near the east end of Spectacle 

 Island, Port Jackson, JF. H. H., and IF. Sheridan Wall, 1855. 



Geogr. Distr. New South Wales. 



Descr. F,oot branching. Frond, in the only specimen seen, about an inch in 

 length, and rather less in breadth, on a stipes less than j inch long, erect, 

 consisting of a single shortly scimitar-shaped network, formed by the anasto- 

 mosing of several (5-6) series of secund, filiform leaflets. The primary 

 leaflet, forming the costa of the network, is recurved, rather more than \ inch 

 long ; from its upper or convex side spring about ten (but in a full-grown net- 

 work they would be more numerous) secondary costae {costulte), which di- 

 verge in an imperfectly digitate manner from the primary, and traverse the 

 breadth of the net, dividing it into cuneiform spaces whose outer margin is 

 deeply toothed and slightly arched in outline : in older leaves each cuneate 

 space would probably become a shallow lobe. The form of the fuU-growu 

 frond would probably be between scimitar- and fan-shaped. Returning to 

 the diverging costulce : each costula emits from its lower surface, at an acute 



