OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
143 
C. — Penicillatae. 
Ramelli of the verticils elongate, dichotomous, very soft and collapsing, 
joined at the apices of the branches to form a pencil or brush, gradually 
becoming denuded below. Fronds corticated upwards. 
WrangeUa plumosa Harvey. 
Much expanded laterally, with long compound pinnate branches 
very soft when growing, but becoming denuded and rough. 
Ramelli brush-like, repeatedly dichotomous, very soft, obtuse end- 
ing; joints of ramelli contracted at the nodes, many times as long 
as broad. Height 15 cm. to 30 cm. Cystocarps veiled densely by 
hairy ramelli. Colour purple but very variable. 
New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania. 
Wrangelia, princeps Harvey. 
The tallest species to 60 cm. high. Frond erect, robust, gela- 
tinous and soft, very easily disintegrated on exposure; pinnae 
virgate, lanceolate in outline, closely pinnate or bipinnate, the 
pinnules opposite; nodes of the branches, pinnae and pinnules 
whorled with byssoid ramelli, ramelli dichotomous, with very long 
articulations; apices blunt. Cystocarps terminating short pinnules 
with scarcely an involucre. Tetrasporangia near the base of the 
ramelli. Colour purplish. 
Western Australia, South Australia (Investigator Strait), 
Victoria. 
GELID IUM Lamouroux. 
Frond firmly cartilaginous, linear, compressed, decompound; composed 
of three strata ; the medullary of densely packed, interwoven, longitudinal 
filaments; the intermediate of polygonal cells; the cortical of minute, 
coloured cellules arranged in radiating moniliform series. Cystocarps 
immersed in the ramuli, within a thick pericarp; pear-shaped pedicellate 
spores dispersed over both surfaces of a medial dissepiment, which renders 
the cystocarp bilocular. Tetrasporangia forming sori in dilated ramuli, 
cruciately divided. From Gelidium most of the Agar Agar of commerce is 
obtained. 
Gelidium australe J. Agardh. 
Frond densely decompound pinnate, about 4in. to 6in. high and equally 
spread, pinnules narrowed at the base, often acuminate, the cystocarps and 
tetrasporangia ciliate in series along the branches. Colour violaceous. 
From South Australia (Investigator Strait, Robe, Encounter Bay) to 
New South Wales. 
Gelidium glandulae folium Hooker and Harvey. 
Frond very narrow, distinctly bi-tripinnate ; pinnae few, opposite, naked 
at the base, fasciculately pinnulate above, pinnules very long, filiform, 
simple or forked. Both cystocarps and tetrasporangia fringe the pinnules. 
Height 25 cm. to 40 cm. Colour a dark purplish-red. 
South Australia (Encounter Bay, Investigator Strait, Robe), Victoria, 
Tasmania. 
