Ser. RHODOSPERMEiE. Fam. Ceramiacea. 



Plate CCXII. 



BALLIA MARIANA, Harv. 



Gen, Char. Frond filiform, rigid, dendroid ; the stem and branches co- 

 vered with a plexus of hair-like short fibres ; ramuli pellucidly arti- 

 culate, pinnately decompound. Fructification: 1, involucrate/«z;e^/<?, 

 terminating short pinnfe, and containing numerous angular spores ; 

 2, tetraspores borne on the hair-like fibres of the stem and branches. 

 — Ballia [Harv.) , in honour of Miss Anne E. Ball, a distinguished 

 Irish algologist. 



Frons fiUfornds, rigida, dendroidea, caule ramisque plexufilorum brevium quasi 

 Jiirsntis ; ramuli pellucide articulati, pinnatim compositi. Fruct. : \,favell(B 

 involucraice, in pinmda abbreviata terniinales, sporas mmierosas ancjulatas fo- 

 ventes ; 3, tetraspora triangule divisa, infills caidinis evolutce. 



Ballia Mariana ; penultimate branchlets (or pltimules) incurved, tri- 

 stichous or tetrastichous, very unequal ; all but one very short 

 and irregularly multifid or pinnate; the long one closely pinnated 

 with tristichous or tetrastichous lesser plumules {plumella) ; these 

 plumellse patent, pinnate or bipinnate, with an excurrent rachis ; the 

 ultimate ramuli very slender, cylindrical, obtuse, opposite or often 

 secund. 



B. Mai'iana; plumulis incurvis tristichis v. tetrasticJtis valde incequalihis, 2-3 

 brevissimis vage multifidis v. pinnatim compositis, uno elongato creberrime 

 plmnellis tristichis v. tetrastichis pinnato ; plumellis patentibus pinnatis v. bi- 

 pinnatis rachide excurrente ; ramidis ultimis ienuissimis cylindraceis obtusis 

 oppositis V. scepe secund is. 



Ballia Mariana, Harv. in Tayl. Ann. Nat. Hist, for May, 1855, p. 335. 

 Harv. Alg. Exsic. Aastr. n. 499. 



Hab. Port Fairy, W.H. H. Warnambool, H. Watts (57). 



Geogr. Distk. South coast of Australia. 



Descr. Root a conical mass of woolly fibres. Fronds solitary, 6-8 inches long 

 or more, distichously branched ; the principal branches (on old fronds) irre- 

 gular, subopposite, alternate or scattered ; on young fronds pretty regularly 

 subopposite, all patent, the lowest longest and most compound. Branches 

 pinnated throughout with minute and larger plumose ramuli, or plumules, 

 which are alternately inserted distichously along each rachis : 2 or 4 or 6 

 of these " plumules," placed in proximate opposition at intervals oi\ inch, are 

 branch-like, .§-1 in long and similarly plumulate as the branches ; the rest are 

 2-3 lines long, incurved. These smaller plumules are alternate ; but oppo- 

 site their bases is a very small plumule, and circling the branch at each node 



