220 



FLORA OP NEW ZEALAND. 



v.. 4. n. 68 ? Mesogloia Natalensis, Awfe. / j5o*!. Zeit. 1847, js. 53. Mesogloia Vogelii, Harv. I Herb. Hook. 

 MSS. Myriocladia Capensis, /, Ag. ! Sp. Alg. v.l.p. 54. Nemalion Natalense, Bering ! Begensb. Flora, 

 1846. Thorea Americana, KMz. Thyc. Gen. p. 326. Sp. Alg. p. 534. Chordaria villosa, llarv. in Herb. 

 Hab. On rocks : Tory Channel, Cook's Straits, Lyall. Parimahu, Colenso. (Native of east and 

 west coast of Africa, and South America.) 



Frond 1-3 feet long, flaccid, cartilagineo-gelatinous, closely adhering to the paper in drying. Main stem either very 

 short and stipitiform, throwing up numerous, long, simple branches ; or elongate and laterally branched throughout, 

 the lowest branches short, the upper long and filiform. Branches simple, fiagelliform, either destitute of ramuli or 

 more or less thickly furnished with short, horizontally divaricate branchlets, of various lengths. The young frond is 

 in every part densely covered with olivaceous villosity, 1-2 lines long, composed of very slender, articulated, cylin- 

 drical filaments, with very short articulations. These villous filaments are deciduous, being thrown off in proportion 

 as the stratum of true peripheric filaments (which are moniliform) is developed. The frond eventually becomes 

 stripped ; but as the peripheric filaments are also long and rather loosely set, it preserves in some degree a villous 

 character. Old specimens strongly resemble Mesogloia virescens to the naked eye. Very old specimens, again, are 

 completely bare, and scarcely to be known from a very robust state of O. Jlagelliformis. 



A widely dispersed plant, if, as we have good reason to believe, all the above-quoted synonyms belong to it. It 

 appears to us to be a true Chordaria ; though referred by J. Agardh to Myriocladia, by Montagne to Mesogloia, and 

 by Kiitzing to Thorea. We have it from Senegambia (Vogel) ; Table Bay (W. H. H.) ; Port Natal (Krauss) ; be- 

 sides the above-quoted New Zealand specimens. 



Gen XXVII. MESOGLOIA, Ag. 



(J. Ag. Sp. Alg. i. 56. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 544. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 31. t. 82.) 



1. Mesogloia intestinalis, Harv.; fronde a basi gracili sursum sensim incrassata intestiniformi sub- 



simplici vel vage ramosa, ramis paucis similibus obtusis junioribus tomentosis, filis periphericis fasciculatis 



elongatis cylindraceo-clavatis subliberis, articulis diametro brevioribus v. sequalibus, sporis elliptico-oblongis 



aggregatis. 



Hab. Blind Bay, Cook's Straits, and Auckland; also Otago Harbour, Lyall. 



Frond 1-2 feet long or probably more, a line in diameter at the base, gradually widening upwards, and at 

 length nearly half an inch in diameter, which thickness is then preserved throughout. Branches few and very irre- 

 gular in position and size, similar to the main stem, obtuse ; the whole frond clothed with villous filaments ex- 

 tending beyond the periphery. The axial filaments are loosely bundled and branched, like those of M. virescens ; 

 the peripheric are fasciculate, cylindrical, slightly widened upwards, of various lengths in the same fascicle, not mo- 

 niliform, and more resemble those of an Machista than of a Mesogloia. Their lower articulations are very short, the 

 upper gradually longer, but the uppermost alone attain a length a little exceeding their diameter. Spores oblong, 

 two or more in each fascicle, sessile. Substance very soft. We have seen very few specimens of this seemingly 

 well characterized species. 



(Gray, Br. PL i. 301. 



Gen. XXVIII. LEATHESIA, Gray. 



Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 23. Harv. Phyc. Brit. J. Ag. Sp. Alg. i. 50. 

 Corynophlcea, Kiitz. 1. c. ) 



Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 543. 



1. Leathesia Berkeleyi, Harv., Phyc. Brit. z!. 176. J. Ag. Sp 

 leyi, Grev. in Berk. Gl. Alg. t. \.f. 2. Wyalt, Alg. Banm. W. 231. 



Hab. Tidal rocks, near Cape Kidnapper, Colenso. (Native of British seas 



. is. l.p. 51. Cheetophora Berke- 



