| Abstract: | Three new species of the genus Balliella Itono & Tanaka are described from eastern Australia. Balliella amphiglanda from Lord Howe I. and Port Hacking, N.S.W., is distinctive in producing either abaxial or adaxial gland cells from the basal cells of lateral branches and in having tetrasporangia restricted to short branches. Balliella repens, from Tryon I., Heron I and Wistari Reef Qld., and Lord Howe I., N.S.W., is distinguished from the other species of the genus by its regularly developed prostrate systems and clustered tetrasporangia. Balliella grandis, from Wistari Reef, North West I. and One Tree I., Qld., is the largest recorded species of Balliella. It has correspondingly large gland cells and abaxial as well as adaxial tetrasporangia. Our work supports the placement of Balliella in the tribe Antithamnieae, a move which necessitates emending Wollaston's definition of the tribe to include species with procarps that form at successive levels along main axes rather than at only one or two points behind the apices. |
