Ser. Chlorosperme^. Fam. S'lplionacecB. 



Plate LXXII. 



CAULERPA SEDOIDES, Ag. 



Gen. Char. Frond consisting of prostrate surcuU rooting from their lower 

 surface, and throwing up erect branches (or secondary fronds) of va- 

 rious shapes. Substance horny-membranous, destitute of calcareous 

 matter. Structure unicellular, the cell [frond) continuous, strength- 

 ened internally by a spongy network of anastomosing filaments, and 

 filled with semifluid grumous matter. Fructijication unknown. — Cau- 

 LERPA [Lamour.) ; from Kav\o<;, a stem, and kpiroa, to creep. The 

 creeping surculi are characteristic of this genus. 



'From ex siirculis prosti'atis hie illic radicantibus et ramis erectis polymorpliis 

 formata. Substantia corneo-viembranacea. Structura unicellulosa, cellidce 

 membrana continua hyalina intus filis cartilagineis teuuissimis anastomosanti- 

 bus firmata et etidochromate denso viridi repleta. Fr. ignota. 



Caulerpa sedoides ; surculus slender, glabrous; fronds erect, sessile, sim- 

 ple or branched, laxly set with opposite or quadrifarious, saccate, 

 obovoid ramenta; rachis somewhat constricted at short intervals. 

 C. sedoides ; siirculo tenui glabra ; fronde erecta sessili simplici v. ramosa ra- 

 mentis oppositis v. undique insertis saccatis obovoideis laxe obsessa ; rackide 

 inter ramenta nodoso-constricta. 



Cadlerpa sedoides, Ag. Sp. Alg. 'o.\.p. 438 ; Sy&t. p. 182. Endl. drd Suppl. 

 p. 16. Hook, et Harv. Ft. N. Zeal. «. 2. p. 261. 



Chauvinia sedoides, Kiltz. Sp. Alg. p. 498. 



Ahnfeldtia sedoides, Trev. in lAnn. v. 22. p. 143, 



Fucus sedoides. Turn. Hist. Fuc. t. 172. 



Var. /S. geminata ; ramenta regularly distichous and opposite, the rachis ar- 

 ticulato-constricted. 



Var. /8. geminata ; ramentis disticliis oppositisque, racliide articidato-constricta. 

 Caulerpa geminata, Harv. in Trans. R. I. Acad. v. 22. p. 564. 

 Hab. On rocks near low-water mark : generally distributed from Swan 

 Eiver to Port Phillip ; and at Kiama, New South Wales. Tasmania. 

 Various collectors. 



Geogr. Distr. West, south, and east coasts of Australia (probably all round 

 the coast). New Zealand. Mauritius. Indian Ocean. 



Descr. Surculi extensively creeping, rooting at short intervals, and forming a 

 dense mat, glabrous and glossy, several inches long, and varying from half 

 a line to nearly a line in diameter, shrinking and becoming wrinkled in 



