Ser. Rhodosperme^. Fam. Cryptonemiacea. 



Plate CIX. 



NEMASTOMA? COMOSA, Haw. 



Gen. Chaii. Frond compressed or flattened, between fleshy and gelatinous, 

 dicliotomous or subpiunate, composed of two strata ; the medullary 

 stratum formed of longitudinal, interwoven, subsimple filaments, the 

 peripheric of excurrent, dichotomo-fastigiate, articulate filaments, moni- 

 liform toward the apices, and lying in lax or firm gelatine. Fructifi- 

 cation : 1, favella immersed below the cortical filaments, containing 

 within a gelatinous periderm numerous roundish spores ; 2, cruciate 

 tetraspores dispersed among the cortical filaments. — Nemastoma"^ (/. 

 Ag.), from vqixa, a thread, and perhaps Larrifjii, in its senes of to 

 strengthen or standfast ? 



Frons compresso-plana, gelatinoso-carnosa, dicJiotoma v. vage pinnata, duplici 

 strato constituta ; strata viedullari fills longltudhudihus simpUciuscuHs inter- 

 text'is, perlpherico fills excurrenti-vertlcallbus dlcJioto mo-fast Igiatls artlculatls 

 apicem versus monlllformihm, muco laxlori v. soUdescente cohlbitls contexto. 

 Frnct.: \, favellce slmplices, infra fila perlpherica immersce ; 2, tetrasporce 

 cruciatim divisa, spar see, intra fila moniliformia nidnlantes. 



Nemastoma ? comosa ; frond very long, linear, compressed, distantly forked; 

 tlie segments elongate, simple, densely fringed with subdistichous or 

 scattered, slender, filiform, basally and apically attenuated ramuli ; 

 cystocarps and tetraspores both immersed in the ramuli (of different 

 individuals). 



N.? comosa; fronde longisslma lineari compressa parce et distanter f areata ; 

 lacinils elongatls simpUclbus ramulls graclllhus fillformibus utrimpie attenuatls 

 subdlstichis sparsisve densisslme comatis ; cystocarplls tetrasporisve in ramulls 

 nididantibus . 



Nemastoma? comosa, Harv. Alg. Austr. Exsic. n. 432. 



Hab. At Philip Island, Western Port, IF. H. II. 



Geogr. Distr. Coast of Victoria. 



Descr. Root a small disc. Frond 4-6 feet long, compressed, 4-5 lines in breadth, 

 forked a short way from the base, again at a foot distance, and afterwards at 

 intervals of 12-18 inches; the 5r««c//(?s occasionally quite simple, and two 

 or more feet long. The axils rounded, and apices gradually attenuated. 

 Throughout the whole frond, or its larger part, the margin is densely fringed, 

 at intervals of a line or less, with horizontally patent, subdistichous, slender 



* Professor Agardh has not explained this name, which he originally (1842) 

 spelled Nemostoma (Alg. Medit. p. 89); changing it to Nemastoma in 1847. 



