Ser. RHODOSPERMEA. Kam. Cryptonemiacea. 
Puate CCLXII. 
NEMASTOMA? PALMATA, Hav. 
Gen. Cuar. Frond compressed or flattened, between fleshy and gelatinous, 
dichotomous or subpinnate, composed of two strata; the medullary 
stratum formed of longitudinal, interwoven, subsimple filaments, the 
peripheric of excurrent, dichotomo-fastigiate, articulate filaments, moni- 
liform toward the apices, and lying in lax or firm gelatine. Frueti/fi- 
cation: 1, favelle immersed below the cortical filaments, containing 
within a gelatinous periderm numerous roundish spores; 2, cruciate 
tetraspores dispersed among the cortical filaments. —Nemastoma* (J. 
Ag.), from vnpa, a thread, and perhaps toTnmt, in its sense of to 
strengthen, or stand fast ? 
Frons compresso-plana, gelatinoso-carnosa, dichotoma v. vage pinnata, duplici 
strato constituta ; strato medullari filis longitudinalibus simpliciuscults inter- 
textis, peripherico filis excurrenti-verticalibus dichotomo-fastigiatis articulatis 
apicem versus moniliformibus, muco laxiort v. solidescente cohibitis contexto. 
Fruct.: 1, favelle simplices, infra fila peripherica immerse ; 2, tetraspore 
cruciatim divise, sparse, intra fila moniliformia nidulantes. 
Nemastoma palmata ; frond membranaceous, thickish, irregularly palma- 
tifid or subdichotomous ; laciniz lanceolate-lmear, subacute, spread- 
ing; medullary tissue very lax. 
N. palmata ; fronde membranacea crassiuscula vage palmatifida v. trregulariter 
Surcata, laciniis lanceolato-linearibus acutiusculis patentibus ; filis medullari- 
bus laxe intertextis. 
Has. Coast of Tasmania, rare, J/iss Browne. 
Grocer. Distr. Tasmania. 
Descr. Root a small, scutate disc. Frond 4—6 inches (perhaps more) in height, 
and as much in the expansion of its lobes, deeply divided, in an irregularly- 
palmate manner into several principal segments ; each of these is again sub- 
divided into numerous, spreading lacinize. Lacinie broadly linear or some- 
what lanceolate, 4—5 lines wide, tapering gradually to a subacute point, not 
contracted at the base, simple or bifid. No fruié has been observed. The 
medullary stratum is composed of very loosely interwoven anastomosing fila- 
ments, separated by rather fluid, hyaline jelly ; the cortical layer, of closely- 
placed, moniliform, coloured, vertical filaments. The colowr of the frond, 
* Prof. Agardh has not explained this name, which he originally (1842) 
spelled Nemostoma (Alg. Medit. p. 89) ; changing it to Nemastoma in 1847. 
