362 
THE SEAWEEDS 
Subfamily Spyridieae J. Agardh. 
SPYRIDIA Harvey. 
Frond filiform, pinnately decompound, articulated, but gradually becom- 
ing coated with a layer of small, coloured cellules; branches and ramuli 
furnished with minute, bristle-shaped, articulated ramelli. Cystocarps 
terminating short branches, involucrated or naked, containing with a 
closed, membranous pericarp numerous oblong spores. Tetraspores formed 
along the ramelli, external, sessile, triangularly parted. 
Spyridia prolifera Harvey. 
Frond robust, tall, rigid, terete, inarticulate, very thickly corticated, 
sparingly and irregularly branched; branches simple or forked, more or 
less beset with short, capillary, tufted, branched or simple, ramelliferous 
ramuli; ramelli setaceous, alternate, acute; tetraspores secund on the 
ramelli, sessile. Colour of stem and branches dark-red, of the ramuli blood- 
red. Substance cartilaginous and rather rigid. In drying the stem and 
branches adhere imperfectly, the ramuli more closely, to paper. 
West Australia (Fremantle). 
Fig. 181 . — Spyridia prolifera: a, plant; b, portion of 
one of the proliferous ramuli; c, ramelli, 
from the same, one of them bearing 
tetraspores; d, a transverse section of a 
branch. (After Harvey.) 
