* 



VI. 



NOTES ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE 



FUCACEsE. 



THE object of these notes is to supply deficiencies in the account of 

 the Fncacete given by Oltmanns,* by a study of those types which he 

 was unable to examine or of which he had imperfect material. In his 

 grouping of the genera marks of uncertainty are attached to Coccophora, 

 Xip ' hop/io ra, Sarcopliycus, Myriodesma, Ecklonia, Scaberia, Hormosira, 

 and Splachnidinm. The first three of these genera are dealt with 

 below, together with Seirococcus and Notheia, which I thought worth 

 more minute examination. Myriodesma has been examined, with the 

 result that the position assigned to it by Oltmanns is confirmed, and 

 his query may be removed. Of Ecklonia and Scaberia satisfactory 

 material did not arrive in time for inclusion in this research, and an 

 account of them will appear later. Hornwsira had already been dealt 

 with by Mr. Mollet f (overlooked by Oltmanns) and Splachnidinm 

 was accounted for in the first part of these Memoirs. With regard to 

 this last genus, now excluded from the Fucacece, it is gratifying to 

 receive the following, confirmation in an essential point of the interpre- 

 tation of the structure, by Mr. R. M. Laing, whose previous work at 

 Splachnidium has been referred to. He writes to the authors from 

 Christchurch, New Zealand, on the I5th February of this year: 'I am 

 glad to say that I am able to bear out the conclusions you arrived at 

 as to the nature of the supposed oogonia, as several years ago I saw 

 zoospores in active motion escape from some that I had been examining, 



* Bibliotheca Botanica, Heft 14, 1889. 



t On the Structure of Hornwsira LabiHardicri (Trans. New Zealand Institute^ vol. 

 xiii., 1880). 



29 E 



