84 Howe : Phvcological studies 



the length of the adult plant, while in the allied species the spo- 

 rangia appear within 1-4 mm. of the base of the adult plant. The 

 branches of the first order are short, 150-410/^ long as compared 

 with 500-1000 IJ. long in A^. dumctosa and N. va7i Bosseae, and are 

 6-10, instead of 15-35, times as long as their median diameter. 

 The corticating branches of the second order are quite often in 

 threes instead of being uniformly in pairs, a character which, 

 apparently, was not observed by Church and which has thus far 

 not been noted in any other species of the genus. Partly as a 

 result of the interpolation of these trimerous elements in the cor- 

 tex, the arrangement of the facets is commonly very irregular, 

 rather more so than might be inferred from Church's figures, 17, 

 21, and 24. The hairs, also, are less gelatinous, more rigid, more 

 persistent, and more conspicuous than in other species of the 

 genus. 



4. Neomeris mucosa sp. nov. 



Plants cespitose, mostly in clusters of 3—20, subcylindrical or 

 subfusiform, 8-20 mm. long, 1.5-2.5 mm. thick, mostly 4-8 times 

 as long as thick, bright or yellowish green in upper tenth to third, 

 becoming chalky- or dingy-white below, apex often appearing 

 somewhat obtuse or truncate when living, but commonly acute or 

 acuminate on drying : successive whorls of primary branches 

 mostly 120-300 in number, 85-1 50/i apart in median regions; 

 number of branches in a whorl in later stages usually 28-48 : 

 hairs all of one form, soft and mucilaginous, di-trichotomous above, 

 a rather conspicuous chlorophylose tuft persisting at the apex : 

 ends of branches of the second order in the mature stage forming 

 a cortex with irregularly hexagonal or somewhat rhombic or tri- 

 angular facets in close rather regular or at length sometimes not 

 easily recognizable transverse rows, each pair of corticating 

 branches lying in an obliquely radio-vertical plane, there being 

 consequently twice as many transverse rows in the cortex as there 

 are primary whorls, the number of facets in each row equaling the 

 number of members in the primary whorl, the cortex usually per- 

 sisting in the upper half and deeply alveolate on drying: branches 

 of the first order of the first 10-12 whorls of the juvenile stage 

 cylindrical, each commonly bearing three di-trichotomous assimi- 

 latory filaments ; the succeeding branches of the first order in the 

 younger stages cylindrical, clavate, or somewhat fusiform, 275— 

 400 n long, 95-1 1 5 /i in diameter, each bearing a pair of deciduous 

 di-trichotomous assimilatory filaments, the primary branches mostly 



