and stem. In winter all the secondary branches fall off, leaving merely the 
main branches, to which the stumps of the fallen ramuli adhere, and give 
them a singularly uncouth aspect. In spring the frond pushes out a new 
series of more slender and decompound ramuli than it had borne the first 
season. ‘The whole frond is perfectly opake, without any appearance of 
articulation. Capsules ovate, sessile, or on very short peduncles, borne on 
the pinnules in summer. Ze¢raspores produced both in summer and winter ; 
in summer immersed in the apices of the pinnules, which are then slightly 
distorted; in winter contained in special receptacles, or stichidia, which 
spring from the sides of the main branches. ‘These stichidia are raised on 
slender peduncles, forked, and tufted. Colour a brownish red, becoming 
very dark in drying. Substance cartilaginous, very rigid in the branches, 
more flaccid in the ramuli, long resisting the action of fresh water. 
eer 
This plant is so different in appearance when collected in 
summer and in winter that it may well be taken by the young 
botanist for two. ‘The summer specimens are well clothed with 
slender, multifid and soft ramuli, which lengthen as the season 
advances, and drop off before winter, leaving bare stems rough 
with broken stumps. 
The ¢etraspores ave found either in summer or in winter. At 
the former season they are simply immersed in the terminal 
ramuli; at the latter they will be found lodged m small branching 
stichidia scattered irregularly along the sides of the branches. 
Except in its much more bushy and branching habit and 
paler colour, there is a very close resemblance between this species 
and £. lycopodiordes (‘Vab. L.) 
Fig. 1. RuopomeELa suprusca :—of the natural size. 2. Pinnated (summer) 
branchlet with tetraspores in the pinnules. 3. Tufted stichidia (winter) 
with tetraspores. 4. A tetraspore. 5. Branchlet with capsules. 6. A 
capsule or ceramidium. 7. Transverse section of the stem:—all more or 
less highly magnified. 
