Ser. CHLOROSPERMEM. Fam. Ulvacea. 
Piatt CCLXV. 
PORPHYRA WOOLHOUSIA, Zar. 
Grn. Cuar. Frond membranous, flat and leaf-like, purple or rosy-red. 
Fructification: purple or rosy granules (spores) arranged in fours, 
dispersed over the whole frond.—Poruyra (dy.), from wopdupos, 
purple. 
Frons membranacea, plana, foliacea, purpurea v. rosea. Fruct.: spore pur- 
2 > > 
puree v. rosea, quaternate, per totam frondem sparse. 
Porpenyra Woolhousie ; frond delicately membranaceous, bright rosy-red, 
glossy, lanceolate or falcate, cuneate at base, simple or irregularly 
cleft. 
P. Woolhousiz ; fronde tenuiter membranacea ameneé rosea nitente lanceolata v. 
falcata, basi cuneata, simplici v. vage fissa. 
Has. Parasitical on the leaves of Macrocystis pyrifera, Tasmania, Miss 
Woolhouse. 
Groar. Distr. ? 
Descr. Root a minute disc. Frond 6-8 inches or more in length, from 1-3 
inches in breadth, cuneate at base, sometimes unequal-sided, and then 
strongly faleate, the concave margin being quite plain, the opposite margin 
wavy or plaited ; sometimes equal-sided and then lanceolate, both margins 
equally wavy. ‘The frond is either quite simple or cleft vertically into two 
or more linear-lanceolate laciniz. The membrane is extremely thin and 
delicate, formed of a single row of cells; in an early stage of growth these 
are polygonal, equally distributed, and forming a tessellated or reticulated 
surface ; afterwards each cell divides into two and then into four parts, 
which finally change into quaternate spores. When mature, any por- 
tion of the frond has the appearance represented at Fig. 4, where the qua- 
ternate spores stand apart, in the perfectly hyaline membrane. The colour 
is a brilliant rosy-red, resembling that of Nitophyllum crispum: and when 
dried the surface retains a strong gloss, as if glazed or varnished. The 
substance is extremely thin and soft, and in drying the frond most closely 
adheres to paper. 
Of this beautiful and brilliantly-tinted species I have seen but 
two specimens, both from Tasmania, and both formerly in the 
