Volume I Part 41 (2/2)
Colour yellowish white. Polypidom about 6 inches high, rising with a single flexuose stem, which is naked at bottom, and afterwards gives off alternate branches, bifariously disposed at each angular flexure.
Branches simple, 2 to 3 inches long; pinnules about 1/4 inch. The construction of the ovarian receptacle in the present section of the genus Plumularia is well exemplified in this species, owing to the comparative simplicity of the elements of which it is composed.
2. P. hians, n. sp.
Cell cup-shaped, deep, cylindrical; mouth nearly vertical; margin with three teeth on each side, the middle one the longest, acute, much expanded, the other more rounded; a wide notch posteriorly. Rostrum, arising from the rachis, as long as the cell, slender, tubular, adnate; lateral processes very small, ovarian receptacles ---- ?
Habitat: Prince of Wales Channel, Torres Strait, in 9 fathoms.
Colour bright brown, rachis s.h.i.+ning, very dark brown; polypidom about six inches high, simply pinnulate, pinnules about half an inch; thickly and regularly disposed, alternate.
3. P. delicatula, n. sp.
Cell cup-shaped, rounded, mouth at an angle of 45 degrees; margin dentate, with two lateral teeth of equal size and a central one in front longer, all acute; entire posteriorly. Rostrum a little longer than the cell, scarcely connected with the rachis, slender, and closely adpressed and adnate to the cell below, wide and projecting upwards; lateral processes large, rising above the margin of the cell, conical, tubular, or ca.n.a.licular.
Habitat: Prince of Wales Channel, Torres Strait, in 9 fathoms.
Colour of rachis and pinnules, delicate yellowish white above; of rachis, light brown, inferiorly; polypidom about two inches high, rising in several straight simply pinnulated fronds from a common centre; pinnules ascending about 1/4 inch.
4. P. aurita, n. sp.
Cells cup-shaped, tapering at bottom, constricted just below the top; mouth at an angle of 45 degrees, circular; margin subcrenate, plicate, with three folds on each side, with a wide shallow notch in front and entire behind. Rostrum, slender, attenuated below, adnate up to the cell, summit contracted, tubular; lateral processes very long, expanding, rising far above the margin of the cell, conical, tubular.
Habitat: Off c.u.mberland Isles, 27 fathoms.
Colour bright brown; polypidom 2 to 3 inches high, consisting of straight pinnate fronds, pinnae or branches not opposite, nor regularly alternate, divaricate at rightangles.
5. P. brevirostris, n. sp.
Cell sub-tubular, curved; mouth expanded with two equal acute teeth on each side, and a longer narrow and slightly incurved, central one in front. Rostrum small, conical, projecting, about half the length of the cell; lateral processes small, recurved at an angle, ca.n.a.licular.
Habitat: Off c.u.mberland Isles, 27 fathoms.
Colour dirty white. In habit, and to the naked eye, very much like the last; its growth, however, appears to be longer and less regular. The difference in the cell is very great.
6. P. ramosa, n. sp.
Cells cup-shaped, deep, rounded at bottom; margin elevated on the sides, expanding, with four teeth on each side, the first and second in front much expanded, acute, incurved at the point; a long slender incurved central tooth in front; margin entire behind. Rostrum not continued to the rachis, adnate the whole length of the cell, wide and projecting, narrowed to the point, which is tubular, opening oblique, longer than the cell; lateral processes conical, short, tubular, closely adnate. Costae of ovarian receptacle with short opposite tubular branches; NOT connected by a membrane.
Habitat: Swan Island, Banks Strait, thrown on the beach.
Colour greyish brown; polypidom 4 to five inches high, much branched, branches irregular, divaricate, rising in great numbers almost immediately from the ma.s.s of radical fibres. A beautiful species, and the ovarian receptacles very interesting.
7. P. divaricata, n. sp.
Cells cup-shaped, long, slightly contracted at bottom; mouth circular; margin sub-expanded, dentate, with three nearly equal upright teeth on each side, and a long, round pointed central tooth in front. Rostrum narrow at bottom, closely adnate, scarcely rising higher than the central tooth; lateral processes small, closely adnate.
Habitat: Ba.s.s Strait, 45 fathoms.
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