Ser. MELANOSPEUMEiE. Fam. Sjm'ochnoidece. 



Plate CCXXV. 



SPOROCHNUS RADICIFORMIS, A^. 



Gen. Char. Frond filiform, solid, pinnately decompound. Receptacles 

 pod-shaped, pedicellate (rarely sessile), crowned with a tuft of soft 

 hairs, and densely covered with whorled, branching, sporiferous fila- 

 ments. Sjjores obovoid, attached to the sides of the filaments. — 

 Sporochnus (4^.), from (nropo'i, a seed, and x^°°'*' wool, because 

 tufts of soft hairs crown the fructification. 



Frons JUiformis, soUda, pinnatim ramosa. Receptacida siliqucpformia, pedicel- 

 lata (rarissime sessiUaJ, apice comosa, paranematibus raviosis horizo)daUbus 

 verticellatis densissime vestita. Spores ohovoidea, ad paranemata laterales. 



Sporochnus radiciformis ; frond terete or compressed, rigid, slender, tree- 

 like (1-2 feet high), glabrous; branches decompound, spreading 

 every way, the smaller ones short and patent, alternate ; receptacles 

 spherical or oval, on pedicels much longer than themselves. 



S. radiciformis; fronde terete v. compressa r'ujida tenni deudroidea (]-2-pedall) 

 glabra ; ramis decomposltis crebris undique egredientibus, minoribus brevibus 

 patentibus alternis ; receptacuUs splicerich aut ovalibm pedicellum ipsis nmlto- 

 ties longim coronantibus. 



Sporochnus radiciformis, Ag. Sp. Alg. v. 1. p. 149 ; Sgst. 258. /. Ag. Sp. 

 Alg. V. I. p. 175. Kiitz. Sp.AUj. 568. Harv. in Ft. Tanm.v. 2. p. 287. Alg. 

 Exsic. Austr. ». 48. 



Fucus radiciformis, R. Br. in Turn. Hid. t. 189. 



Hab. West and south coasts of New Holland. Tasmania. Not rare. 



Geogr. Distr. West and south coasts of Austraha. Tasmania. 



Descb. Root a conical disc, coated with woolly fibres. Frond ultrasetaccous at 

 base, becoming thinner upwards, 1-2 feet high, excessively branched and 

 bushy, but slender ; the branches mostly closely placed, several times de- 

 compound, and furnished with small spreading ramuli. Some specimens are 

 much more decompound than others ; those from deep estuaries, grown in 

 rapid currents (as in the Tamar) have very long, slender, little divided 

 branches, and proportionately long ramuli ; those from the open sea arc 

 more bushy, less pinnated, with more zigzag ramification. Receptacles glo- 

 bose or oval, minute, on pedicels 1-3 lines long, the pedicel twice or thrice 

 as long as the receptacle. The young frond bears tufts of capillary filaments 

 OQ the ends of branches, branchlets, and receptacles. The colour is a brown- 

 ish or greenish olive, becoming greener in fresh-watt'r or the air. The sub- 

 stance when young is soft, that of the old frond somewhat rigid. In drying 

 the frond adheres more or less firndy to paper. 



