Ser. RhodospermEjE. Fam. Laurenciacea. 



Plate CXLIV. 



CLADHYMENIA CONFERTA, Haw. 



Gen. Char. Fro7id membranous, flat, thin, linear, disticliously pinnatifid, 

 formed of large, polygonal, granuliferous, internal cells, coated exter- 

 nally with minute, coloured cellules. Fructification : 1, ovate cera- 

 inidia, containing a tuft of pear-shaped spores; 2, tripartite tetra- 

 spores, in definite marginal sori. — Cladhymenia [Harv.), from Kka- 

 S09, a branch, and vjJi'qv, a membrane. 



Fi'ons memhranacea, plana, tenuis, linearis, disticJie pinnatifida, e cellulis mag- 

 nis pohjgonis granuliferis superficiem versus minutis composita. Fruct. : 1, 

 ceraniidia ovata, fasciculum sporaruvi pyriformium fovetitia ; 2, tetrasporce 

 triangule divisce, in soros dejiiiitos intramarginales coUectcB. 



Cladhymenia conferta; frond narrow-linear, midribbed, serrulate, twice 



or thrice pinnatifid ; pinnse and pinnules normally opposite (but by 



suppression often secund or irregular), oppositely penninerved ; the 



costa vanishing upwards ; ceramidia terminating shortened pinnules ; 



. sori oblong or linear, intramarginal. 



C. conferta ; fronde anguste Vmeari costata serridata 2-S-pinnatifida ; laciniis 

 oppositis (v. scepe s^cundis sparsisve) opposite peuninerviis ; costa sursum 

 evanescente ; ceramidiis ramulos ahbrematos terminantihus ; soris oblongis v. 

 linearibus in.tr amarginalibus. 



Cladhymenia conferta, Karv. Alg. Austr. Exsic. n. 24-5. Harv. in Hook. 

 Ft. Tasm. v. 2. p. 306. 



DicTYMENiA conferta, Harv. Ner. Austr. p. 29. t. 8. 



Delesseria conferta, Ag. Sp. Alg. t. \. p. 177. 



Fucus confertus, R. Br. in Turn. Hist. t. 184. 



Hab. Kent Islands, B. Broivn. Port Fairy, W. H. H. Georgetown, 



Tasmania, R. Gunn, IF. H. H. Southport, C. Stuart. 

 Geogr. Distr. South coast of Australia. Tasmania. 



Descr. Root minute. Fronds densely tufted, 4-6 inches long, 1-2 lines in 

 diameter, delicately membranous, much branched, in every part distichous, 

 repeatedly but rather irregularly pinnatifid. Primary branches one or several 

 inches long, erecto-patent, by suppression often alternate or secund, long 

 and short intermixed, the short simple, the longer once or twice pinnatifid. 

 The main divisions and principal branches are traversed by a strong mid- 

 rib, which gradually becomes more slender and fainter upwards, and at last 

 almost disappears under the apices of the laciniae : this rib throws off at 

 short intervals opposite, immersed, patent veins, running straight to the 



