(From the Bi llbiinoi rHE ToRRBY Bc.TANICAl Ci i i , 31 : 93-ico. February, IQ04.] 



Notes on Bahaman algae 



Marshall A. Howe 



(With plate 6) 



A collection of Bahaman algae, mostly marine, secured during 

 the summer of 1903, by Dr. W. C. Coker, of the University of 

 North Carolina, chief of the botanical staff of the Expedition of 

 the Geographical Society of Baltimore to the Bahama Islands,* 

 has been submitted to the writer for determination. This collec- 

 tion includes several rare or novel forms and some of the more in- 

 teresting have been selected for comment below. Dr. Coker's 

 specimens of algae were all preserved in fluids, either alcohol or so- 

 lutions of formaldehyde, and they have for this reason proved espe- 

 cially satisfactory for study; though in some cases, as may neces- 

 sarily happen, the material was less copious than could be desired. 



Caulerpa compressa (Web. -v. Bosse). 



Caul er pa paspaloidcs, var. typica, f. compressa Web. -v. Bosse, 

 Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, 15 : 353. pi. 30. f. J, 4. 1898. 



In four feet of water, off Clarence Harbor, Long Island, Ba- 

 hamas, July 16, 1903. 



This plant, which agrees closely with Mme. Weber's descrip- 

 tion and figures, is, we believe, absolutely distinct from Caulerpa 

 paspaloides (Bory) Grev. In C. paspaloides, the primary pinnules 

 are 3- or 4-ranked, so that the " frond " is distinctly 3- or 4-angled 

 or 3- or 4-winged, a character that is more strikingly apparent in 

 fresh or fluid-preserved material than in dried specimens ; the sec- 

 . ondary pinnules are pectinately secund along the upper side of the 

 rachis and the lowermost of these secondary pinnules are always 

 much shorter than the rachis itself. In Caulerpa compressa, on 

 the other hand, the primary pinnules are so numerous and densely 

 crowded that it is difficult to say how they are arranged, but they 

 are probably 8-12-ranked, and the "frond" is as cylindrical and 

 dense as that of Dasycladus vermiadaris (Scop.) Krasser ; the sec- 



* For organization of this expedition and outline of its results, see Science, II. 18 : 

 427. 2 O 1903. 



93 



