Ser. Melanosperme^. Fnm. Fiicacea. 



Plate CXXXI. 



TURBINARIA GRACILIS, Sond. 



Gen. Char. Root branching. Frond alternately decompound, with dis- 

 tinct stem, vesicles, and receptacles ; the leaves confluent with the 

 vesicles. Leaf-vesicles stipitate, turbinate, crowned with a peltate 

 lamina. Recejitacles pod-like, toruloso-verrucose, dichotomously 

 branched, axillary. Scaiplddia dioecious? Spores obovoid. — TuR- 

 BiNARiA [Lamour.), from turbo, ' a top / from the top-shaped vesicles. 



Radix ramosa. Frons alterne decomposita, cmde propria, ramis, vesicidis re- 

 cejdaculisque donata ; foliis cum vesicidis conjiuentibus. Folia vesiculata 

 stipitata, ttirbinata, lamina peltatd horizontali apice coronata. Eeceptactda 

 siUqucsformia, toruloso-veri'ticosa, dicltotome ramosa, axillaria. Scaphidia 

 dioica ? Sporce ohovoidea. 



TuRBiNARiA gracilis ; branches slender, reflexed at their insertion ; vesi- 

 cles obconical or subglobose, obtuse at the apex, crowned with a 

 wide, irregularly toothed lamina ; receptacles much branched. 



T. gracilis ; ramis gracilibus retrofiexis ; foliis vesicidosis obconicis spharicisque 

 apice obtuso membrana lata vage dentata coronatis ; receptaculis axillaribus 

 ramosis. 



TuRBiNARiA gracilis, Sond. in Bat. Zeit. 1845,^9. 52. PI. Preiss. v. 2. p. 

 165. /. Jg. Sp. Jig. v. 1. p. 268. 



Hab. Western Australia, Preiss, Mylne. 



Geogr. Distr. Western Australia. 



Descr. Root and stem not known. Brandies 12-18 inches long, slender, terete, 

 rough with remains of broken ramuli, and furnished in the upper half with 

 several lesser branches, or ramuli. Ramuli 3-5 inches long, retroflexed at 

 their insertion, patent, simple, set throughout with leaf-vesicles in alter- 

 nately spiral order. Vesicles on pedicels 2-3 lines long, obconical or 

 swollen, and then subspherical, covered with prominent glands, and crowned 

 round the naked summit with a broadish, more or less toothed or laciniate, 

 peltate lamina. Receptacles springing from the stipes of the vesicle, a short 

 way from the axil, much branched ; the branches spreading, forked, obtuse, 

 torulose. Colour olivaceous when recent, turning very dark when dry. 

 Substance coriaceous, rather brittle when dry. It does not adhere to paper. 



Whether this be a true species, or merely an attenuated form 

 of the T. vulgaris, is a point which I leave undecided. The 



