If this be not a very lovely, at least it is a very remarkable 
Alga, combining as it does something of the habit of Constan- 
tinea with the structure and substance of Schizymenia, in which 
latter genus, until its fruit be ascertained, it may be placed pro- 
visionally. The enormously thick stipes is so very strange and 
anomalous, that on first inspection of the dried specimens I sup- 
posed it to be some extraneous body to which the membrane 
had attached itself. A careful examination shows that this is not 
the case. Probably the stipes may be perennial, like that of a 
Laminaria, producing an annual frond from the summit. ‘The 
frond seems to expand horizontally, like the peltate leaf of a 
Water-lily, and it would merely require the cohesion of the large 
basal lobes to render it completely peltate. Though I collected 
fragments cast ashore at Fremantle, in 1854, Mr. Clifton has the 
merit of having first discovered the stipes. I presume his speci- 
mens were collected on the beach, as the base of the stem seems 
wanting. A fragment from Mr. Clifton of what, from its bul- 
lated surface and substance, appears to belong to this species, in- 
duces me to suppose that the lamina, when full grown, attains 
much larger dimensions than above given. It may perhaps be 
two or three feet across ! 
Fig. 1. ScHIZYMENIA BULLOSA,—the natural size. 2. Section, showing the 
structure of the frond,—magnified. 
