Neomeris dumetosa J.V.Lamour.

Plate 6
I and 2. Neomeris dumeiosa
1.	A scale formed by the coalescence of five primary branches and the intercalary
lime-masses; from Fau, Dutch East Indies (A. IVeier-van Bosse).
2.	A similar scale from a presumably authentic specimen in the Muséum d’His-
toire Naturelle of Paris (see Plate 1, Figure 1).
Figures I and 2 are enlarged 55 diameters.
20. Neomeris dumeiosa
Portion of the decorticated surface of an adult plant, showing the coalescence of
the primary branches and intercalary lime-deposits into transverse scales. The figure
is enlarged 40 diameters and is drawn from a fluid-preserved specimen collected on the
island of Fau, Dutch East Indies, by A. Weber-van Bosse.
i. Neomeris dumetosa Lamour. Hist. Polyp. 243. pi. 7. f. 8.
18 16; Expos, meth. Polyp. 19. pi. 68. f. 10, 11 (// poor).
1821. — Cramer, Neue Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturf. Ges. 30:
— (10-14, 38). pi. 2. f 13-J5 '> Pl- 3• /• 3- l887- Not N.
dumetosa Cramer, op. cit. 32:—'(19—21). pi. i.f. 13 / pi. 2.
f. 7, 8. 1890.
Plants gregarious or scattered, subcylindrical, elongate and
slender, 20-40 mm. long, 1-2 mm. thick, mostly 15-20 times as
long as thick, acute or acuminate at apex : successive whorls of
primary branches about 300-400 in number, 80-90/^ apart near
the middle of the plant, 135 near apex ; number of branches in
a whorl usually 28-40 : hairs all of one form, sparingly persistent
in an inconspicuous apical tuft: * ends of branches of the second
order in the mature stage forming a cortex with irregular hex-
agonal facets in irregular, often scarcely recognizable, transverse
and oblique rows, each pair of corticating branches commonly
lying in a somewhat oblique plane, cortex easily deciduous, usu-
ally persistent only in upper fourth or sixth, reticulate-alveolate on
drying : branches of the first order in adult fertile stage 500-
680,« long, 14-30 ¡1 in diameter in their median and basal parts,
slender, mostly 18-35 times as long as their median diameter,
soon very strongly calcified and regularly coherent by heavy
intercalary deposits of lime into flat, cuneate, flabelliform, or some-
what annular densely crowded transverse scales or bands, these
consisting usually of 3-8 branches with the intercalary masses of
lime 2—4 times as broad as the branches, very easily caducous, the
main axis often becoming extensively naked in basal and median
parts : branches of the second order capitate, the terminal infla-
tions 1OO—18 5 ¡t in greatest diameter, outwardly rounded-obtuse,
their walls moderately gelatinous, the pedicels scarcely calcified,
the terminal inflations strongly calcified proximally and laterally
but not on their outer surfaces : sporangia strongly calcified but
mutually free, first appearing at 2-3 mm. from base of the mature
plant, soon deciduous, persisting in irregularly crowded groups or
loosely scattered, 150-200 ¡j. long (decalcified and including stalk),
the calcareous capsule 16-50,« thick; spores subglobose, 135-
* The apparently conspicuous apical tuft shown in I.amouroux’s figure 3 consists
quite largely, judging from specimens in the Paris Museum, of young uncalcified col-
lapsed facets from which the hairs have already fallen.
160¡i x 130-154//, commonly a trifle longer than broad or oc-
casionally vice versa (sometimes only 100-110 ¡1 in diameter in the
East Indian specimens). [Plate i, figure i ; plate 5, figure
20; PLATE 6, FIGURES I, 2.]
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