Ser. RHoposPpERME. Fam. Delesseriee. 
Puate IX. 
NITOPHYLLUM VERSICOLOR, Zarv. 
Gen. Cuar. Frond membranaceous, reticulated, rose-red (rarely purplish), 
regularly cleft, veinless, or furnished with irregular veins toward the 
base. ructification, two-fold, on distinct plants: 1, spherical tudber- 
cles (coccidia) immersed in the frond, and containing a globular mass 
of angular seeds; 2, ¢etraspores grouped into definite sori or spots, 
variously scattered over the frond. NiropnyniumM—corruptly formed 
from niteo, to shine, and pirdov, a leaf’; shining-leaf. 
NrropHyiium versicolor ; stem cartilaginous, elongated, simple or branched, 
suddenly expanding into a broadly fan-shaped, variously cleft frond, 
of a thickish-membranaceous, highly reticulate substance and rose- 
red colour, becoming golden-orange in fresh water; the segments 
rounded ; the apices generally thickened, and ciliiferous ; fructification 
unknown. 
NiropHyLivo versicolor, Harv. Manual, p. 59. 
Has. Very rare. Thrown up, probably from deep water. Annual. June 
to August. Ilfracombe, Miss HiZ (1800) and Mrs. Griffiths. Youghal, 
Miss Ball (1834). 
Groer. Distr. Southern shores of England and Ireland. 
Desc. Root unknown. Stems irregularly tuberous or incrassated below, from 
half an meh to an inch long, fleshy, firm, cylindrical or club-shaped, 1-2 
lines thick, simple or branched. The drvanches suddenly expand into broadly 
fan-shaped fronds 2-3 inches in breadth, and 14-2 inches in height, more 
or less deeply cleft in a dichotomous manner, membranaceous and veinless. 
Segments im some specimens less than half an inch broad, in others above 
an inch, cuneate, now once or twice cleft, now many times divided, roundish 
at the apices, entire or minutely ciliate. The tips of the frond, and some- 
times portions of the lateral margin, are much thickened, producing oblong 
or oval fleshy excrescences something similar in appearance to the thick- 
ened base of the stem. ‘These cad/i are in an early stage minutely papillate, 
especially towards the outer edge (fig. 6), but as they advance in age the 
papillz elongate into irregularly branched, cellular, cylindrical filaments 
(fig. 5,9,10). On cutting open the ca//us innumerable minute granules, re- 
sembling those which constitute the solid part of the endochrome of the cells, 
issue forth, but these bear no resemblance to spores of any description. The 
substance of the frond is thicker, and the reticulations, shown at fig. 4, 
larger than in N. Bonnemaisoni, to which species the present is nearly 
allied. The colour when fresh is a rosy-red, but the slightest contact with 
fresh water changes this to a golden-orange. On drying, however, the 
original colour is restored, and is retained in the herbarium. The substance 
is softer than in N. Gmelini, and in drying the plant adheres more firmly 
to paper. 
PRR Renn 
I have little to add to the account of this species already pub- 
