Ser. RiiODOSPEKMEiE. Tam. Rhodomelacea. 



Plate CLXXXVIII. 



POLYPHACUM PROLIFERUM, J^. 



Gen. Char. Frond proliferous. Phj/llodia flat, linear, midribbed ; very 

 rough on both sides with wart-like or spine-like processes ; interior 

 cellules large and empty ; exterior minute, coloured, angular. Fruct. : 

 1, ceramidia (unknown) ; stichidia lanceolate, involute, scattered or 

 tufted, containing a double row of tetraspores. — Polyphacum [Ag.), 

 seemingly from iroXv^, many, and (paKos, a lentil. 



Frons prolifera. Phyllodia plana, linearia, costata, utrinqne verrucis spinulisque 

 scaberi'ima ; celluUs interioribm maximis hyaUnis, exterioribus mimdls colo- 

 ratls angidatis. Fruct.: I, ceramidia (ignota) ; 'i, stichidia lanceolata, apice 

 involuta, sparsa v. caspitosa, tetrasporas triaugide divisas duptici serie foventia. 



Polyphacum 2^ToUfe7'um ; wart-like processes very minute, stipitate, spinu- 

 lose ; stichidia densely csespitose, confined to the apices of the phyl- 

 lodia. 



P. proliferum; verrucis minutis stipitatis spimdiferis ; stichidiis dense ceespitosis 

 apicem frondis coronantibus. 



Polyphacum proliferura, ^^. Syst. p. 274. Grev. Syn. p.xxxvi. Endl. Syn. 



jo. 33. So?/d. Bot.Zeit.lSi5,p. 5i. Fl. Preiss. v. 2. p. 185. Harv. Ner. 



Austr. p. n ; Alg. Austr. Exsic. n. 150. Harv. in Trans. R. I. Acad. 

 V. 22. p. 537. 



Osmund aria prolifera, Lamx. Ess. t. 1. Bene. Voy. Venus, ined. cum icons 

 eximia. 



Hab. New Holland, Lamouroux. Western Australia, Preiss. At Pre- 

 mantle, G. Clifton. King George^s Sound, W. R. H. 



Geogr. Distr. Western and south-western Australia. 



Descr. Root an expanded callus. Stem, in old fronds, one, two, or more inches 

 long, cylindrical below, rigid and hgneous, becoming compressed upwards 

 and passing into the tapering base of a narrow-linear, thick, coriaceous, 

 opaque, very obtuse or eraarginate phyllodium, which is 3-6 inches long, 

 and generally 4-5 hues wide. From the midrib, and often from the apex, 

 of the primary phyllodium, spring others of similar form and texture ; and 

 these emit others sinailar to themselves but smaller; and tlius, at length, a 

 proliferously much-branched frond, 1-2 feet in expansion, may be formed. 

 All the phyllodia are very closely covered, on both sides, with minute, spi- 

 niferous processes, giving to the surface the rough feel of shagreen when 

 dry, and somewhat that of a rigid sponge when moist. Such is the common 

 state of the plant ; but states occur (sec Pig. 2) in which the wartcd phyl- 

 lodia emit perfectly smooth, thin, membranous, serrated, and transversely 



