RHODOMELACEAE. 519 



1826; L. tuberculosa J. Ag. 1852; L. gemmifera Harv. 1853; L. mexicana 

 Kiitz. 1865.) This much-named species is usually easily recognizable, though 

 its slenderer more freely branched conditions sometimes approach forms of L. 

 obtusa, while its simpler conditions may sometimes bear a superficial resem- 

 blance to L. papillosa. It is coarser than L. obtusa and its branches are more 

 inclined to be distichous. Its numerous short tubercle-like branchlets, which 

 are less crowded than in the following species, are one of its characters. The 

 Bermuda specimens seen are not wholly typical. 'Specimens that seem to 

 belong here have been collected at Eed Bay, St. David's Island, and at 

 Tobacco Bay, St. George 's. 



Laurencia papillosa (Forsk.) Grev. is a widely distributed species that is 

 common on rocks near the low-water mark in Bermuda and the West Indies. 

 It ordinarily grows 1-5 inches high, is sparingly and irregularly branched or 

 once or twice subpinnate, the main branches bearing usually crowded wart-like, 

 button-like, subglobose, or short-truneate-clavate ramuli, which are irregularly 

 disposed on all sides or somewhat 4-ranked and are simple or bear still smaller 

 similar branchlets. Not only do the plants as a whole seem to the naked eye 

 to be papillate or adorned with numerous pegs, but in certain individuals, 

 especially in those growing in exposed positions between the tide-lines, the 

 younger superficial cells, under a compound microscope, are seen to be strongly 

 aculeate-papillate. 



Laurencia Corallopsis (Mont.) M. A. Howe (Sphaero coccus corallopsis 

 Mont, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba. Bot. PL Cell. 49. 1842 (French ed.) ; in Sagra, 

 Ic. PI. Fl. Cuba, pi. 3. f. 1. 1863; Laurencia cervicornis Harv. Ner. Bor.-Am. 

 2: 73. pi. 18. /. C. 1853). This species appears to be the most distinct of any 

 of the West Indian forms of Laurencia, differing from the others in its 

 dichotomo-cormybose or cervicorn habit of branching, with few or numerous 

 lateral proliferations. It grows 2-6 inches tall and its main axes are mostly 

 -1-1 line in diameter. It occurs on rocks in shallow water at Buildings Bay, 

 Red Bay, Tobacco Bay, etc. (Phyc. Bor.-Am. 2187, as L. cervicornis Harv.) 



Laurencia perforata Mont., a species originally described from the Canary 

 Islands, has been recently reported from the Bermudas (Phyc. Bor.-Am. 1889), but 

 the specimen distributed under that name in the one set of the Phycotheca examined 

 has not the apical vegetative structure of a Laurencia or of any other member of 

 the Rhodomelaceae. 



Chondria curvilineata Collins & Hervey, is a straggling, rather incon- 

 spicuous, irregularly branched plant, scarcely more than an inch long, that 

 forms tangled mats in shallow water, as at The Flatts, Heron Bay (Phyc. 

 Bor.-Am. 2039}, and in a mangrove swamp near Hamilton. Its ultimate 

 ramuli are long-clavate and obtuse. The most remarkable character of the 

 species, determinable with the aid of a compound microscope, is found in the 

 thickened crescentic transverse septa separating the members of the poly- 

 siphonous axis, these crescents, with their convexities towards the plant-apex, 

 being easily visible through the overlying cortex. The species of Chondria 

 may usually be distinguished from those of Laurencia under a hand-lens by 

 the much narrowed often decolorate neckg of the commonly more slender 

 ultimate ramuli, and in Bermuda the species of Cliondria are more slender, less 



