134 Rhodora [May 
plant. The vegetative portion of the parasite is much reduced, con- 
sisting merely of filaments penetrating the host, and winding about 
among the cells of the frond. The fructification is external, and con- 
sists of a cushion of densely packed, radiating filaments, the cells of 
which at maturity are changed into tetraspores. Several genera of 
this character have been described by Schmitz; we have three spe- 
cies in New England, Sterrocolax decipiens Schmitz on A/nfeltia 
plicata (Turn.) Fries; Actinococcus subcutaneus (Lyng.) Schmitz on 
Phyllophora Brodiaet (Turn.) J. Ag. and A. aggregatus on 
Gymnogongrus Griffithsiae. It is a curious fact that in each case 
the parasite has tetrasporic fruit of the character appropriate to the 
host, while the host appears to have lost the capacity for producing 
tetraspores, and is propagated either by cystocarps, or only vegeta- 
tively. 
Melobesia Coral/inae Crouan was found on a frond of Corallina 
officinalis L., by Mr. L. L. Dame at Siasconset, Nantucket, and 
reported in Mrs. Owen's Plants of Nantucket, in 1888. There is no 
other report of its occurrence, but this year it was found in consid- 
erable quantity at Newport, Rhode Island, and at Nahant, Mass- 
achusetts, and more sparingly at Seal Harbor, Mount Desert, Maine. 
Probably it may be found wherever Corallina officinalis is common. 
In Ruopona, Vol. II, p. 11, the writer noted the occurrence of a 
single specimen of Ralfsia Borneti Kuckuck at Seal Harbor, Maine. 
Since then this species has proved to be common on rocky shores 
along the whole New England coast, growing on pebbles, 
Lithothamnion, and especially on the shells of live mussels. 
Miss E. M. Cherrington of Hyde Park, Mass., has been so kind 
as to allow the writer to examine a collection of algae made by her 
on the Maine coast last summer, and among them are three species 
not hitherto reported from that region. One of them, Monostroma 
/atissimum (Kuetz.) Wittr., was to be expected, though it is cer- 
tainly not very common, as the writer has looked for it every sum- 
mer for the past twelve years unsuccessfully. Miss Cherrington’s ` 
specimens were collected at Bayville, in July. The other two are 
of considerable interest, being species hardly to be expected there. 
At Port Popham, at the mouth of the Kennebec, Miss Cherrington 
found several specimens of Cadlithamnion tetragonum (With.) Ag., 
not depauperate specimens, but well developed individuals, over r2 
cm. high. This species has never before been reported north of 
