Howe: Phycological studies 81 



eter, soon strongly calcified but remaining distinct and free from 

 each other, or very irregularly and loosely coherent, persistent : 

 branches of the second order capitate, the terminal inOations i lo- 

 220 fi in greatest diameter, outwardly siibtruncate or lightly arc- 

 uate, their walls rather firm, the pedicels well calcified as to their 

 bases at least or sometimes nearly free from lime, the terminal 

 inflations strongl}' calcified proximally and laterally, but their outer 

 surfaces, with rare exceptions, uncalcified and nitent : sporangia 

 strongly calcified but mutually free, first appearing at 1-4 mm. 

 from base of mature plant, commonly long persistent, 135—220 // 

 long (decalcified and including stalk), the calcareous capsules 20- 

 55 It thick; spores subglobose or oval, 105-176 /-« x 96-170//, 

 their width often about \\, rarely )^, their length. [Plate i, fig- 

 ures 4, 7 ; PLATE 5, FIGURES I 7- 1 9.] 



Type from Sikka, Flores, Dutch East Indies, A. Wcber-van 

 Bossc iig6, in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden 

 and in the herbarium of Madame Weber-van Bosse, Eerbeek, 

 Holland. Known also from Savoe [Savu], Dutch East Indies, 

 Weber-7>an Bosse ; from Vavau and Lifuka, Friendly Islands, W. 

 H. Hari'ey, August and October, 1855 ; and from Koolauloa. 

 Oahu, Wz.\v2i\\, Josep}ii7ic E. Tildcn, June, 1900, Am. Algae ^/j. 

 The specimens from New Guinea, Beccari, cited by Solms {loc. cit. 

 7 1 ), under N. diimetosa we have not seen, but it is quite possible that 

 they belong here, as this seems to be the most common species of 

 the group in that region. 



It is a pleasure to associate with the present species the name 

 of one of its collectors, Madame A. Weber-van Bosse, who had 

 already recognized that her material of the Neomeris duvietosa 

 group included two species, and to whom the writer, like many 

 other students of the marine algae of the present day, is indebted 

 for numerous most helpful courtesies. J. Agardh {loc. cit.) seems 

 never to have seen Richard's West Indian plant and in describing 

 Neomeris dinnetosa from Harvey's material from the Friendly 

 Islands he gave evidence of some doubts as to whether the two 

 were really the same. 



Neomeris van Bosseae agrees with N. diimetosa in its mutually 

 free sporangia, but the two, so far as can be judged from the ma- 

 terial now in hand, appear to' be sufficiently and constantly distinct. 

 The most obvious distinguishing character of N. van Bosseae is 

 that the branches of the first order, though strongly calcified, re- 



