expanding margins, the holes are very minute, resembling pin-punctures ; 

 gradually they increase in size until they attain from -i—i inch in diameter, 

 and always preserve a tolerably regular circular outline. No holes are 

 found in the region just above the stipes, a portion of the lamina vehich 

 continues to develope during the active life of the plant. The cy&iocarps 

 are minute, dot-like, dark-red, and much sunk in the substance of the frond, 

 through which they are plentifully scattered. T\\e, Jilamciits of the medul- 

 lary region are rather laxly interwoven, and those of the intermediate are of 

 smaller size than common in the genus, and in a single row. The colour 

 when quite fresh is a deep crirason-lake ; from which it passes through all 

 grades of rose-red to yellowish and white. The substance is gelatinous and 

 tender, and the plant, in drying, adheres strongly to paper. 



The genus Kalli/menia, founded on the old " Fiicus reni- 

 formis' of Turner, now includes several species, inhabiting 

 widely separated localities, extending from the circumpolar 

 ocean of the north, to the shores of Tierra del Fuego and New 

 Zealand on the south. But among all that it comprises, there 

 is none comparable in beauty to the species now figured ; nor 

 are there many Algae, even in Australia, that match this one for 

 delicacy of colour and singularity of structure. The outline is 

 not remarkable. It is like its congeners, merely a shapeless 

 expansion. But the regularity Mdth which every portion of the 

 substance becomes pierced with gradually enlarging holes, soon 

 converts the shapeless frond into a delicate piece of open-work, 

 fit for a mermaid's mantle on her gala days. Its Colonial name 

 — " the holi/ coat" by which it is known to collectors of sea- 

 weeds — is grotesquely true. It cannot be doubted that the 

 tendency to form holes regularly throughout the membrane, is 

 a normal condition of the species, analogous to the same tendency 

 seen in Algae of very different affinity, as Alarum and Thallassio- 

 jphyllum, Hi/droclathrus and Ulva reticulata. The only portion 

 which remains constantly free from holes is a small space at the 

 base. Specimens from the several localities where it occurs, — 

 localities separated by many hundred miles, — are precisely simi- 

 lar. Its most abundant known habitat is in the eddy just 

 within the Heads of Port Phillip. In the other known habitats 

 it is very rare. 



Fig. 1. Kallymenia cribrosa, — the natural size. 2. Section of the frond and 

 of a cijstocarp, — magnified. 



