Trichocladia.] AI&JE MELANOSPERMEvE. 183 



TRIBE VII. CHORDARIE^E. 



Plants marine, of an olivK-green or olive-brown colour, becoming 

 darker on exposure, of a cartilaginous or gelatinous substance, and 

 celluluso-filamentous structure. Frond Jiliform (except in Coryne- 

 phora, which is globose and tuberculosej much branched, cylindri- 

 cal ; the centre or axis, composed either of longitudinal, aggregated, 

 colourless, jointed filaments, or of a solid cellular substance ; the 

 periphery, consisting of coloured, simple or branched, somewhat cla- 

 vate tor uloso-articulated filaments, disposed in a verticillate manner 

 round the axis. Fructification (so far as ascertained}, ovate or 

 pyriform olive-coloured seeds (capsules ?) enveloped in pellucid 

 cases, imbedded among the filaments of the periphery, to whose ra- 

 muli they are laterally attached. To Chordaria, a genus which 

 Dr. Greville places by itself in this family, I have ventured to 

 add another ( Trichocladia J, which is very nearly allied to it in 

 structure and fructification, but which has till now been con- 

 founded with Mesogloia ; and Corynephora, a plant perhaps of 

 uncertain affinities, but which approaches in structure more 

 nearly to Trichocladia than to any other. The family thus 

 constituted is allied on the one hand to the Dictyotece, and on 

 the other to the Gloicladece. From the latter it chiefly differs 

 in colour, and in the structure of the fructification. 



24. CHORDARIA. Ag. Chordaria. 



Frond filiform, much branched. Axis cartilaginous, firmly ge- 

 latinous, cellular. Periphery composed of simple, clavate, 

 torulose, verticillate filaments. Fruct. : " obovate brown 

 seeds (capsules ?), mixed with the filaments of the peri- 

 phery." Carm. Name : Chorda, a cord. 



1. C. flagelliformis, Ag. Common Chordaria. Frond fili- 

 form, equal throughout ; branches alternate, exceedingly long 

 and mostly simple. Hook. Br. Fl. v. ii. . 175. E. Bot. 

 t. 1222. 



Sea-coast, on rocks and stones, common. 3 12 inches long, slender, 

 dark olive-brown. Captain Carmichael observes, that, " in young plants, 

 there is little or no vestige of the filaments" of the periphery, and that 

 " their development appears to keep pace with that of the sporidia." 

 I am sorry that my own observations are directly at variance with this 

 account, for I have found these filaments as perfectly formed in plants 

 not two inches high as in those of full growth. 



25. TRICHOCLADIA. Harv. Trichocladia. 



Frond filiform, much branched. Axis loosely gelatinous, com- 

 posed of articulated, hyaline fibres. Periphery consisting of 



