98 Howe : Notes on Bahaman algae 



Ncomcris Cokeri constitutes the third known species of the 

 genus, all of which occur in the West Indian region. The princi- 

 pal diagnostic characters of the three species may be arranged as 



follows : 



Hairs homogeneous ; ends of the branches of the second order forming a cortex with 

 distinct facets. 

 Plant reaching a height of 3.5 cm. ; sporangia spherical or nearly so, strongly 

 calcified but free. I. N. dumetosa.* 



Plant reaching a height of 2 cm. ; sporangia obovoid-oblong or pyriform-obovoid. 

 about twice as long as broad (not including stalk), strongly coherent laterally 

 by their calcareous capsules, so that the plant in the lower fertile parts appears 

 transversely annulate. 2. A", annula/ti.j 



Hairs dimorphous, the two forms in different zones ; branches of the second order sub- 

 fusiform, scarcely forming a cortex, surface of the plant after the fall of the hairs 

 somewhat shaggy or minutely and irregularly punctate ; sporangia free or coherent in 

 short rows of 2-8. 3. N. Cokeri. 



Neomeris annulata is not especially uncommon in the West 

 Indian region. The writer has collected specimens in Bermuda, 

 Key West, Florida (two stations) and Porto Rico (three stations). 

 Of what appears to be the true N. dumetosa, we have seen only 



* Neomeris dumetosa Lamour. Hist. Polyp. 243. />/. 7. /. 8. 1816. Sonder, 

 Alg. Trop. Austral, pi. 5. / 8-13. 1871. J. Ag. Till Alg. Syst. 5 : 147-15 1.//. 2. f. 

 4-7. 1887. Cramer, Neue Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturf. Ges. 30 : — (10, 38) pi. 2. f. 

 13-15 ; pi. 3. f. 3. 1887. Cramer, op. cit. 32 : 19. pi. 1. f. 13. ; pi. 2. f. 7, 8. 1890. 

 De-Toni, Syll. Alg. 1 : 413. 1889. Solms, Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, 11 : 70.//. 

 8b. f. 11. 1893. 



f Neomeris ANNULATA Dickie, Jour. Linn. Soc. 14 : 19S. 1874. De-Toni, 

 Syll. Alg. 1 -.414. 1S89. Solms, Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, 11 : 61-7i.pl. 8. f. I, 

 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13., 17. 1893. 



Neomeris Kelleri Cramer, Neue Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturf. Ges. 30 : — (3). pi. 

 1 ; pi. 2. f. 1-12 ; pi. 3. f. 1,2. 1887. Cramer, op. cit. 32 : 9. pi. i.f. 1-12 ; pi. 2. f. 

 1-6; pi. 4. f. 15-24. 1890. De-Toni, Syll. Alg. 1 : 413. 1889. 



Neomeris Eruca Farlow ; Cramer, Neue Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturf. Ges. 32 : 

 9, 18, 19. 1890. 



The names Dactylopora Eruca, D. digitata, and D. Annulus of Parker and Jones 

 (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. III. 5 : 473, 474- i860), quoted by Cramer in the 

 synonymy of his Neomeris Kelleri, were originally applied simply to calcined spore- 

 masses and fragments of a Neomeris from the " East Indian and other tropical seas," 

 and cannot, in our opinion — especially since the discovery of Neomeris Cokeri with 

 its peculiar hairs — be safely identified with any definite species, though as between 

 Neomeris dumetosa and N. annulata, Daitylopora Eruca and D. Annulus clearly 

 belong with the latter type. The name Neomeris Eruca Farlow apparently was first 

 published by Hauck in Engler's Bot. Jahrb. (9:469- 1888) but this, so far as the 

 technicalities of publication are concerned, rests on the Dactylopora Eruca synonym 

 alone, and is. therefore, we believe, of uncertain application. 



