
Key to the New Zealand Genera.
| A. |
The branches of the thallus consisting of single rows of cells. |
| (a.) |
Spermothamnteæ.—Thallus naked or provided with very delicate verticillate ramuli.* Cystocarps terminal on special fertile branches. The fruit-mass of 1 or 2 gonimolobes. |
| (i.) |
Thallus with creeping rhizoids and upright laterally branched fertile shoots. Fruit-mass with 2 gonimoblasts 1. Spermothamnion, |
| (ii.) |
Thallus with creeping rhizoids and upright oppositely or alternately pinnate fertile shoots. Fruit-mass with 1 gonimoblast 2. Ptilothamnion. |
[Footnote] * The term “ramuli” has been used throughout this paper to denote short limited branchlets, frequently in whorls at the nodes (Ger. Kurztrieben).

| (b.) |
Griffithsieæ.—Thallus naked or provided with very delicate verticillate ramuli. Cystocarps terminal on special fertile branches. The fruit-mass of 1 or 2 gonimolobes. |
| (i.) |
The sporangium bearing whorl of ramuli intercalary or apparently terminal. Some of the ramuli sterile, some fertile 3. Griffithsia. |
| (ii.) |
The sporangium bearing whorl of ramuli near the end of the shoot. The inner ramuli short, branched, and bearing sporangia, and enclosed by one-celled sterile ramuli 4. Pandorea. |
| (c.) |
Monosporeæ.—Branches of a single row of naked cylindrical cells. Cystocarps terminal on the fertile shoots, with 1 gonimoblast. |
| (i.) |
Sporangia divided into more than 4 spores 5. Pleonosporium. |
| (d.) |
Callithamnieæ.—Main axis of a single row of naked cells, the lower part clad with rhizoids. Cystocarps lateral, without involucre. |
| (i.) |
Sporangia divided into tetrads. Fruit-mass of several rounded gonimolobes 6. Callithamnion. |
| (e.) |
Spongoclonieæ.—Main shoot naked, covered with a spongy network of long-celled laterally-branched filaments. Cystocarps terminal on very short lateral branches, thus appearing sessile. Cystocarps of several rounded successively formed gonimolobes, sometimes enclosed in a small-celled patelliform involucre. |
| (i.) |
Thallus round, covered with a spongy network. The central axis branched alternately at the joint-cells, not coated with rhizoids. Cystocarps external on the network of the thallus, closed on the underside by the filaments, without patelliform involucre 7. Spongoclonium. |
| B. |
Ptiloteæ.—Cell rows of the branches naked or with ramuli. Thallus either coated with rhizoids or with a normal closed cortex. Cystocarps generally enclosed by several involucral branchlets. |
| (i.) |
Branches coated with rhizoids or with a normal cortex. Apical cell diagonally segmented. Cystocarps terminal on short fertile pinnæ 8. Euptilota. |
| C. |
Crouanieæ.—Main axis either of a single row of cells with very richly branched ramuli, or with a central axis and cortex, consisting of richly branched filaments tightly packed together. |
| (i.) |
Thallus filamentous, main shoot consisting of a single row of cells. Cystocarps in the axil of a solitary ramulus 9. Ballia. |
| (ii.) |
Thallus filamentous, main shoot consisting of a single row of cells. Cystocarps terminal 10. Antithamnion. |
| D. |
Spyridieæ.—The thallus possesses a central axis which is completely or partially clothed with a cortex consisting of larger cells within and smaller cells without. |
| (i.) |
Thallus rounded, branched on all sides, with large-celled central axis The cortex ring internally large-celled, externally small-celled, and broken only on the weaker shoots 11. Spyridia. |
| (ii.) |
Thallus rounded or flattened, dichotomously branched, the dichotomous branches bent inwards like a pair of pincers. Central axis large-celled. Cortex ring continuous, or found only at the nodes 12. Ceramium. |
| (iii.) |
Thallus completely corticated, with conspicuously large cells internally and small externally 13. Microcladia. |
| E. |
Thallus filamentous with creeping rhizoids and erect fertile branchlets. Branches consisting of single rows of cells 14. Rhodocorton. |
