doubtedly right to do so. Our opening Plate of the present 

 Volume {Clcmdea Benneitiana) is a striking instance of a very 

 strongly characterized plant, of whose distinctness from the pre- 

 viously known species there can be no question, and yet which 

 is only known by a small fragment once dredged in a locality 

 which has been repeatedly searched in vain for further data. 



The Sporochnus now figured is also founded on a single speci- 

 men, that occurred among drift-weeds above Georgetown, Tas- 

 mania ; where Sp. comosus, in many varieties, is profusely com- 

 mon. If the present be one of these varieties, it is at least 

 a most strongly marked one, differing not only from all states 

 of S. comosus, but from every other species of Sjporochnus, in the 

 complete absence oi pedicel to the receptacle. On this character 

 alone therefore I venture to propose the species ; other diffe- 

 rences of habit will be seen when we figure S. comosus. 



S. ajpodiis is further interesting as being the link that connects 

 Sporochnus with Nereia ; and reduces the difference between 

 these genera to the degree of evolution of the axis round which 

 the spore-threads are whorled. In Nereia the axis is punctiform 

 or discoid, and the result is a conical or hemispherical recep- 

 tacle ; in Sporochnus it is filiform, and the result an oblong or 

 cylindrical receptacle. These two genera of Algae therefore have 

 a similar analogy with each other, as have the proteaceous genera 

 Drymidra and Banksia. 



Fig. 1. Sporochnus apodus, — the natural size. 2. Part of a branch, with re- 

 ceptacles. 3. Spore-threads from the receptacle : — the latter figures vari- 

 ously magnified. 



