A L G iE. 157 



N T H E I A, Nov. Gen. Fucoidearum. 



Frons parasitica, filiformis, prolifera, solida, Scaphidia per totam fron- 

 clem sparsa, in strato corticali infra superficiem excavata, sphcerica, cum 

 ostioli superficiali per canalem communicantia. Sporce intra perispo- 

 rium hyalinum linear i-ohovatum parietale nidulantes. Paranemata 

 simplicia. Alga parasitica, pusilla, organis nullis discretis, quasi 

 receptacidis Cystoseirse vel Sargassi habitu referens. 



Notheia anomala, Earv. & Bail. (Tab. 9, f. 3-6.) 



Hab. Bay of Islands ; parasitic on Hormosira Sieberi. 



Frond two or three inches high, twice as thick as hog's bristles, fili- 

 form, slightly tapering at the base and apex, undivided, furnished 

 with lateral branches, which are similar to the primary frond, and 

 which arise from all sides proliferously; each young branch springing 

 from one of the scaphidia of an older branch. Branches and ramuli 

 successively smaller, the youngest fusiform and mostly arched. Sca- 

 phidia dispersed through all parts of the frond, immersed in the 

 cortical layer, spherical, with a rather large aperture. Spores in very 

 narrow, almost linear, slightly obovate, almost parietal perispores, 

 which are guarded by numerous simple paranemata. Color olivace- 

 ous; substance subcoriaceous. 



This very curious production, if it be a separate organism, and not 

 some strange metamorphosis of the Hormosira upon which it grows, 

 must constitute a new genus, allied to Splaclinidium, from which it is 

 distinguished, both by habit and by the solid structure of its frond. 

 It strikingly resembles the receptacles of the fruit of a Gystoseira or 

 Sargassum, if we can conceive these to grow, without a frond, directly 

 from the internodes of a Hormosira. The plant forms a little bush ; 

 but each branch rises, as it were, viviparously from the scaphidium of 

 a previous branch. We have not tested its connection with the Hor- 

 mosira, nor ascertained whether it springs from a scaphidium of that 

 plant. Should this be the case, it is not impossible that our NuOeta may 

 be nothing but a spurious production, after all. 



[Since the above was written, copious specimens have been received, 

 from various collectors in New Zealand and Australia; and Dr. Harvey 



40 



