OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
51 
Utricles 435 ^ to 600 ^ long, 50 /x to 250 ^ broad, cylindrical with 
depressed globose tips, and below the tips at times an irregular circle of 
hairs. Membrane thin, to 10 /x thick at the apex; tips slightly or decidedly 
alveolate within. 
Gametangia stout, ovate, 230 ^ to 277 /x long, 108 /x to 123 \x broad. 
South and East Coasts of Australia; Tasmania; Lord Howe Island. 
Section Spongiosae. 
Spongy forms attached by the whole base. 
C odium spongiosum Harvey. 
The thallus consists of a soft light-green irregularly lobed and undulated 
sponge-like mass, of from 5 to 10 cm. in greatest diameter and 1 to 
2.5 cm. or more high. It is attached to the substratum by the 
Fig. 32. — Utricles of Codnum spongiosum ; (a) sterile utricles; 
(b) fertile utricle; (c) tip of utricle. 
whole of its broad base. The interior is composed of a tangle of much 
branched threads lying loosely in a gelatinous slime. The green palisade 
surface layer is composed of the vertically placed utricles. The utricles 
are large, varying in shape from cylindrical to pear-shaped, sometimes of 
equal diameter throughout, sometimes narrow below and expanded above. 
Their length may be from 1.5 to 6 mm., and the breadth from 200 /x to even 
1,000 /x (= 1 mm.). The tips are rounded or somewhat flattened, with a 
thin bounding membrane 3 /x to 5 /x thick. The gametangia are obovate, 
about 250 /x long and 100 /x wide. In this species not infrequently 2, 3, or 
even more gametangia are borne on the same utricle. 
NATIONAL HERBARIUM C~ VICTORIA 
