DICT YOTACE^E. — Sorantiiera. — Aspeeococcus. 117 



IX. SORANTHERA, Post, and Rupr. 



" Frond membranaceous, olive-green, simple, flat, dilated, entire. Fructification : 

 Antheridia pear-shaped, vaginate, mixed with club-shaped jointed threads, and 

 aggregated in roundish sori scattered over the whole frond." 



1. SoRANTHERA ulvoidea, Post, and Rupr. Illustr. p. 19. J. Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. 1, 

 p. 120. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 556. 



Hab. Island of Sitcha, Russian America, parasitical on EJiodomela larix. (Pos- 

 tells and Ruprecht). 



" Lamina membranaceous, olive-green, sub-rotund, plaited, in the two specimens 

 seen not more than an inch in breadth ; the margin very entire, not thickened, nor 

 distinctly revolute. The whole lamina so densely covered with roundish tubercles, 

 a quarter of a line in diameter, and prominent on both surfaces, that scarcely any 

 intersticial spaces of more than a line in breadth remain sterile. The tubercles are 

 composed of an assemblage of heterogeneous antheridia, and considered as sori ; in 

 the dry state they collapse and become harder and brown. The dried lamina is 

 thinly membranous, scarcely loses colour, and does not adhere to paper." — Post, and 

 Rupr. Of this plant I know nothing. It seems, to judge by the above description, 

 to be related to Punctaria, if distinguishable from that 2;enus. 



X. ASPEROCOCCUS, Lamour. 



Root a small, naked disc. Frond tubular, cylindrical or inflated, rarely compressed 

 membranaceous, unbranched and inarticulate. Fructification minute, dot-like sori, 

 scattered over the whole surface, and containing roundish, sessile spores, accompanied 

 by a few short, club-shaped, jointed paranemata. 



This genus differs from Punctaria in having a tubular or inflated, instead of a 

 flat frond. Asperococcus sinuosus departs in habit from the typical species, but 

 seems to be identical in structure or nearly so. A. clathratus of authors is, in my 

 opinion, sui generis. 



1. Asperococcus echinatus, Grev. ; frond cylindrical, club-shaped, obtuse, much 

 attenuated at the base. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 194. Grev. Crypt. Fl. t. 290. /. Ag. 

 Sp. Alg. vol. \. p. 76. Enccelium echinatum, Ag. — Kiltz. Sp. Alg. p. 552. 



