Ser. EnoDospEEMEiE. Fam. Sphcerococcoidea. 



Plate LXXXVIL 



DELESSERIA HYPOGLOSSOIDES. Haw. 



Gen. Char. Frond leaf-like^ membranous, areolated, symmetrical, simple 

 or branched, midribbed. Fructification : 1, hemispherical conceji- 

 tacles, sessile on the midrib or on a lateral nerve, containing a tuft of 

 moniliform spore-threads on a basal placenta ; 2, tripartite tetraspores, 

 in definite sori or spots, on the frond or on accessory leaflets. — 

 Delesseria {Ag.), in honour of Baron Delessert, a distinguished 

 patron of botany. 



Frons foliacea, membranacea, areolata, symmetrica, simplex v. ramosa, costata. 

 Fruct. : 1, coccidia in casta venisque frondis sessilia, hemisphcerica, fila spori- 

 fera mouiliformia a placenta basalt emissa foventia ; 3, tetrasporce triangule 

 divisce, in soros definitos collects. 



Delesseria hi/poglossoides ; dwarf, decumbent ; frond linear-lanceolate, 

 repeatedly proliferous from the three-tubed, jointed midrib, with leaf- 

 lets of a similar form ; leaflets acute or acuminate, very entire ; 

 fruit ? 



D. hypoglossoides ; pusilla, decumbens ; fronde lineari-lanceolata e casta tenui 

 trisiphonia artlcidata repetite prolifera ; falialis acutis acuminatisve in- 

 teger rimis. 



Delesseria hypoglossoides, Harv. in Trans. R. I. Acad. v. 22, p. 548. 

 Harv. Alg. Exsic. Austr. n. 282. 



Hab. Rottnest Island, W. H. H. Garden Island, Western Australia, 



G. Clifton. Dredged in Port Jackson, C. Moore. 

 Geogr. Distr. Western Austraha. Port Jackson, New South Wales. 



Descr. Foot somewhat creeping. Fronds 1-3 or 4 inches long, normally quite 

 simple, 1-3 lines in diameter, Hnear-lanceolate, acute at each end, and often 

 prolonged at the apex into a subulate or fiUform acuminatiou. From the 

 midrib of this primafy leaf spring other leaflets of simflar form ; and their 

 midribs emit others : thus by repeated proliferous growth the old fronds 

 may become densely much branched. The midrib is very slender, jointed 

 at short intervals, each joint formed of three oblong cellules, of which the 

 middle one is cylindrical, and the lateral flat on the inner and angularly 

 convex on the outer side. At each side of this midrib is a broad band 

 of roundish-angular cefls, gradually diminishing in size outwards, and pass- 

 ing into somewhat horizontally seriated linear ceUs, which terminate in the 

 very entire, flat margin, '^o fruit has yet been seen. The colour is a clear 

 rosy-red or carmine. The substance is delicately membranous, and the plant 

 in drying adheres firmly to paper. 



