Go to National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa
Volume 37, 1904
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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).

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(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.