Ser. EhodospermEjE. Fam. Comliliiacea. 



Plate LXXVII. 



AMPHIROA AUSTRALIS, Sond 



Gen. Char. Frond terete, compressed, or flat, calcareous, articulated, di- 

 chotomous, pinnated or whorled. Nodes cartilaginous. Fruct. : 1, 

 conceptacles conical, wart-like, sessile on the disc of the articulations, 

 furnished with an apical pore, and containing in the base of the 

 cavity a tuft of erect, pyriform, at length four-parted spore-threads. — 

 Amphiroa {Lamour.), a fanciful mythological name. 



Frons calcarea, fragiUs, teres v. compressa v. plana, articulata, dichotoma v. 

 pinnatm ramosa v. verticillata. Genicula cartiUujinea. Fr. : 1, concejitacula 

 conica, verrucceformia, ad superjiciem articulorwm sessUia, apice poro pertusa, 

 in f undo loculifila sporifera fasciculata erecta demum quadripartita foventia. 



Amphiroa australis ; dichotomous or trichotomous ; the lower joints li- 

 near, compressed, upper broadly oval-oblong, emarginate at each end, 

 flat, sharply edged; nodes naked, short; ceramidia? 



A. australis ; dichotoma v. trlcliotoma ; articidis inferioribus linearibiis coni- 

 pressis, snperioridus elliptico-obloiif/is ntrinqne ewnrijiualis complanatis mar- 

 gine acutis ; genicidis nudls brevibus ; ceramidiis ? 



Amphiroa australis, 8ond. Bat. Zeit. 1845, jO. 55. Preiss, PI. v. 2. p. 188. 

 Harv. Ner. Aust. ;?. 98. /. Jg. Sp. Alg. v. 3. p. 537. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. 

 p. 703. 



Hab. Swan Eiver, Preiss. Rottnest Island, in deep tide-pools, W. H. H. 



Geogr. Distr. Western AustraHa. 



Descr. Root a hard, stony disc. Stem of three or four linear, strongly com- 

 pressed but round-edged joints, each nearly \ au inch long and 1-2 lines 

 wide, dividing into branches, which are repeatedly dichotomous or tricho- 

 tomous, and composed of a series of oval-oblong, tlat, thin, and sharp-edged 

 articulations, obtusely indented at each end, particularly at the upper extre- 

 mity. These articulations are t-|- inch long, and 2-3 lines wide, quite 

 smooth and even ; the young terminal ones as long as broad, and somewhat 

 heart-shaped. Lateral ratnuli of one or two joints are often borne at the 

 nodes of the principal branches, and in some specimens the ramification 

 eventually becomes umbellate. The nodes {genicula) are miimte, naked, and 

 brown. The colour, when growing, is a clear, crimson rose-red, which is 

 tolerably preserved in drying. The substance is very brittle, but the joints 

 do not so readily fall asunder as in many other species. 'No fruit has been 

 seen. 



Here we have one of the slone-p/ants, which were so long 



