Ser. lliiODOSPEiiMEiE. Fam. Rhodi/meniaceee. 



Plate CCXVI. 



RHODOPHYLLIS VOLANS, iiarv. 



G EN. CiiAR. Frond flat, membranous, dichotomously or pinnately decom- 

 pound, mostly margined with leafy or slender processes, and com- 

 posed of two strata of cells; the medullary stratum formed of roundish- 

 angular cells, the cortical of coloured cellules in one or few rows. 

 Frucfijicatmi : 1, marginal, external conceptacles, containing within 

 a pericarp formed of radiating filaments, a compound nucleus, formed 

 of bundles of spore-threads radiating from a basal (or central) pla- 

 centa; 2, zonate tetraspores, immersed in the peripheric cells of the 

 segments or margined processes. — Rhodophyllis (Z«lf'^0.),from/3o8eo9, 

 red, and ^vKKov, a leaf. 



Trons plana, menihranacea, dichotome v. pinnatim decomposita, segmentisque 

 clliisve marginalibus obsita, stratis duobus coutexta ; strata medullari celluUs 

 rotundato-angulatis, corticali celluUs coloratis uni- v. paiici-seriutis composito. 

 Fruct.: 1, cgstocarpia marginalia, externa, pericarpio filis moniliformibus 

 radiantibus conjlato vitmita, nucleicm compositum ex fascicuUs Jilorum radian- 

 tixmi formatum foveutia ; Jilis demuni in sporas solulis ; 2, tetrasporce zonatim 

 divis(je,fronde v. lacinulis marginalibus immerscB. 



Rhodophyllis volans ; tufted, springing from interwoven fibres ; frond 

 membranous, rosy, subdichotomous or irregularly divided ; segments 

 linear, spreading, simple at the margin, or more generally pinnated ; 

 pinnae oval or oblong, obtuse, narrowed to the base, subpetiolate ; 

 cystocarps scattered over the disk of the frond; tetraspores in the 

 pinnae, zonate. 



11. volans ; ccespitosa, e jilis intertexlis orta ; fronde membrauacea rosea subdi- 

 chotoma vel vage partita ; segmentis linearibus patentibus margine simplicibiis 

 vel scepissi'ine pinnatis ; pinuis ovalibus oblongisve obtusisbasi attenuatis subpe- 

 tiolatis ; cystocarpiis per discum frondis sparsis ; tetrasporis in pimiis nidu- 

 lantibus zonatim divisis. 



PtHODOPHYLLls volaus, Harv. in Trans. R. I. Acad. v. 22. p. 554 ; Alg. 

 Austr. Exsic. n. 367. 



IIab. Cast ashore. King George's Sound and Eottnest Island, W.II.H. 

 Garden Island and Fremantle, G. Clifton. 



Geogr. Distr. West and south-west coasts of Australia. 



Descr. Root composed of a few, short, interwoven fibres. Fronds tufted, 2-4 

 inches long, somewhat flabeUiform in outline, multipartite, the segments 

 from a (quarter to half inch broad. The ramification varies considerably in 

 different specimens ; sometimes the frond is ni;arly regularly dichotomous 



