1905] Setchell, Gymnogongrus Torreyi 137 
seen, to the genus Chondrus, making the binomial, Chondrus Tor- 
reyi. In 1851, J. G. Agardh, in the second volume of his Species 
Algarum (p. 319), refers the plant of his father to the genus Gymno- 
gongrus. The name, Gymnogongrus Torreyi, thus given by J. G. 
Agardh is retained by the species to this day and farther than the 
information given by the original describer, we have nothing to help 
us in the definite placing of the plant. 
No farther help is given by Kuetzing, who, in his Species Algarum 
(p. 738), simply repeats the description of C. Agardh, and the name 
has remained one of those which must necessarily be kept in the 
list of “Species inquirendae.” There have been several attempts 
to unravel the identity of the species, however, but without satisfac- 
tory outcome. J. W. Bailey, in an article in the Americam Journal of 
Science for 1848 (p. 39) says under Dasya elegans Ag., “unless 1 
am greatly mistaken, Sphaerococcus Torreyi was founded on a bat- 
tered specimen of this plant” and goes on to say that his reason for 
expressing this opinion is founded on an examination of a fragment 
of the original specimen preserved in Dr. Torrey's Herbarium. 
Harvey, in the second volume of the Nereis Boreali-Americana 
(p. 166) is inclined to refer a fragment received from Hooper, to 
this species, but without satisfying himself that it really belongs to 
Agardh’s species. J. G. Agardh, in the third volume of the Species 
Algarum (Epicrisis, p. 210), states that the species had never been 
rediscovered and intimates that certain plants supposed to belong to 
this species were simply extremely narrow plants of Gracilaria mul- 
tipartita which differ from the type, both in external form and in 
internal structure. Farlow has nothing to add and says in his New 
England Algae (p. 146) that the species is known only from the 
description of C. Agardh, which leaves its status in a very undesir- 
able condition. 
An examination of the Herbarium of J. G. Agardh in the Univer- 
sity at Lund, Sweden, made through the kindness of Dr. Otto 
Nordstedt, the Curator, has helped the writer toward a solution of 
the difficulty. The types were readily found and are more plainly 
marked than some of the types of the species created by C. Agardh. 
There are six plants included under No. 24119. They are labelled 
“New York, Torrey, in Hb. C. Agardh,” evidently in the hand- 
writing of J. G. Agardh, while in another hand, presumably C. 
Agardh's, is written “ Spaerococcus Torreyi” A careful examination 
