drying. Fronds crowded, 2-4 or occasionally 6 inches long, linear, clothed 

 throughout their whole length with laxly imbricated leaves, which are some- 

 times perfectly distichous and opposite, sometimes irregularly inserted on all 

 sides, and more crowded : the normal insertion however is seemingly dis- 

 tichous and opposite, for the rachis is regularly constricted into spurious 

 nodes between each pair of leaves or ramenta. These ramenta are obovoid, 

 one or two lines long, and more than half as broad as their length. The 

 colour is a brilliant yellow-green, well preserved in drying ; fading, in old 

 fronds, to a dull straw-colour. The substance is ciirtilaginous, and the plant, 

 if quite fresh and well pressed, will adhere, though not firmly, to paper. 



A pretty little species of Caulerpa, more widely dispersed than 

 most of the Australian kinds, and subject to considerable varia- 

 tion in size and in the disposition of the ramenta. Our var. /3, 

 in its typical state, looks so unlike the common form, that 

 I at first took it for a distinct species ; but specimens subse- 

 quently obtained showed a complete passage into the ordinary 

 C. sedoides. All authors agree in describing the ramenta as im- 

 bricated on all sides, and so they apparently are in many cases, 

 but I think this arises more from twisting of the rachis, or dis- 

 placement of the ramenta, than from regular development ; for 

 it is equally or more common to find strictly distichous oppo- 

 site ramuli ; and the regular constriction of the compressed rachis 

 below their insertion indicates that these are normally distichous. 

 The development of the whole frond is very similar to that of 

 C. cadoides, which this species resembles in miniature. The 

 specific name " sedoides" alludes to the resemblance to Sedmn 

 dasy^ltyllum. 



Fig. 1. Caulerpa sedoides, — the natural size. 3. Small portion, — magnified,. 

 3. C. SEDOIDES, var. geminata, — tUe natural size. 4. Small portion, — - 

 magnified. 



