Ser. RuopospERMEA. Fam. Rhodomelea. 
Puate CCCXIX. 
POLYSIPHONIA CARMICHAELIANA, Za. 
Grn. Cuar. Fond filamentous, partially or generally articulate ; joints 
longitudinally striate, composed of numerous radiating cells or tubes 
disposed round a central ‘cavity.  Hruetification twofold, on different 
individuals: 1, ovate capsules (ceramidia) furnished with a terminal 
pore, and containing a tuft of pear-shaped spores; 2, detraspores 
imbedded in swollen branchlets. Potysrrpnonta (Grev.),—from 
modus, many, and ovpor, a tube. 
PotystpHonta Carmichaeliana; stem inarticulate, percurrent, flexuous, 
rigid, set throughout with lateral, alternate, inarticulate, divaricating 
branches ; ramuli scattered, very patent, irregularly forked, articulate; 
articulations as long as broad, three-tubed. 
PotysipHonta Carmichaeliana, Harv. in Hook. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 328. Harv. 
Man, ed. 2. p. 87. 
PoLysIPHONIA divaricata, Carm. MS. (not of Agardh). 
Has. Parasitical on Desmarestia aculeata. Appin, Capt. Carmichael. 
Very rare. 
Goer. Distr. (Not known elsewhere.) 
Descr. Filaments tufted, but not densely so, about four inches high, rigid, 
thicker than hog’s bristles; stem undivided, running through the frond, 
bent alternately from side to side in a slightly angular manner, inarticulate, 
furnished throughout with lateral branches. branches widely spreading 
and divaricating, bent like the stem, and furnished with very patent or 
horizontal lesser branches, which in their turn bear numerous scattered 
uregularly-forked ramuli, standing at right angles to the branch from 
which they grow. The whole aspect of the plant is thorny and irregular, 
and the substance rigid. The small branches and ramuli are alone arti- 
culated ; their articulations are about as long as broad, and three-tubed ; 
and a transverse section shows four large primary siphons with external 
secondary cells at the angles. Fruit unknown. Colour a dark brown-red, 
changing to black in drying, in which state the plant adheres very im- 
perfectly to paper. 
Ae ee 
{ here figure a specimen collected by Capt. Carmichael, at 
Appin, and now preserved m the rich Herbarium of Sir W. J. 
Hooker. No one but Carmichacl has met with this plant, to 
my knowledge, and he only found it once. Its characters are 
