Ser. RHODOSPERMEiE. Fam. Cryptonemiaccm. 



Plate CXLII. 



MYCHODEA CARNOSA, iiooh filet Haw. 



Gen. Char. Frond filiform, cartilaginous, alternately decompound, den- 

 droid, composed of three strata; the medullary stratum of longitudinal 

 and excurrent, interwoven and anastomosing filaments; the inter- 

 mediate of large, roundish, empty cells, smaller outwards ; the cortical 

 of minute, coloured, vertically seriated cellules. Fructification: 1, 

 external, lateral or terminal conceptacles, containing, within a thick- 

 walled pericarp, a compound nucleus, consisting of many confluent 

 nucleoli, or masses of roundish-angular spores ; 2, zonate tetraspores, 

 dispersed in the branches and ramuli. — Mychodea {Harv.), from 

 fiv^o'i, an internal cavity, or secret chamber, alluding to the large 

 empty cells of the intermediate stratum of the frond. 



Trons filifornm, cartilaginea, alterne decomposita, dendroidea, stratis tribus con- 

 texta ; strata medullari fills longitudinalibus et excurrentibus intertextis aua- 

 stomosantibus, intermedio cellulis maxhnis rotundatis vacuis extus sensivi 

 minoribus, coriicali cellidis minittis coloratis verticaliter seriatis composilo. 

 Fruct. : \,favellidia intra pericarpium externum later ale v. terniinale excepta ; 

 2, tetrasporce zonatim divisce, spars(e,frondi imrnersce. 



Mychodea carnosa ; frond dendroid, excessively branched ; branches 

 flexuous, patent, repeatedly divided, spreading every way, attenuated 

 upwards, the ultimate subdichotomous ; ramuli minute, spine-like, 

 irregularly scattered; conceptacles spherical, sessile on the lesser 

 branches and ramuli, lateral, minute. 



M. carnosa ; fronde dendro'idea ramosissima ; ramis flexuosis patentibus pluries 

 divisis quoqiioversian cgredientibus sensim attenuatis, penuUhnis subdichotomis ; 

 ramulis lateralibiis minutis spinaformibus sparsis ; cystocarfiiis mimitis sphm- 

 ricis ad latera ramormn minorum sessilibus. 



Mychodea carnosa, Hook. fit. et Harv. in Lond. Journ. Bot. v. &. p. 408. 

 Harv. Alg. Austr. Exsic. n. 411. Harv. in Hook. Fl. Tasm. v. 3. p. 323. 



Cystoclonium carnosum, Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 723. /. Ag. Sp. Alg. v. 2. p. 

 309. 



Hab. King George's Sound; Cape Riche ; and Port Philip Heads, 

 W.R.H. Letevre's Peninsula, Br. F. Mueller. South Australia, Dr, 

 Cm-die. Georgetown, Tasmania, R. Gunn, W. H. E., Rev. J. Fereday, 

 etc. 



Descr. Root branching. Frond 6-18 inches long or more, witli a leading, 

 simple or divided stem, densely set throughout with irregularly inserted, 



