37 



NEW AND LITTLE-KNOWN BROWN ALG^ OF THE 

 PACIFIC COAST. 



By De Alton Saunders. 



Hapalospongidion. Plant-body of small, rounded, gelatinous, 

 indefinitely-expanded masses, consisting of unbranched vegetative 

 filaments and hairs arising from a basal plate which is two cells 

 thick; plurilocular sporangia formed by the transformation of the 

 upper cells of the longer vegetative filaments; unilocular sporangia 

 arising from the transformation of the terminal cell or cells of the 

 shorter vegetative filaments. 



H. gelatino5Uin. Longer vegetative filaments |-f mm. long ; 

 cells of the basal third of the filament barrel-shaped 4-5// wide, 

 twice as long as broad ; central cells of the longer filaments quad- 

 rangular, not at all constricted, 5-6/< wide, two to three times as 

 long as broad, increasing slightly in width upward; cells of distal 

 third of the longer vegetative filaments rounded, 7-10// wide, 

 one-half to as long as broad ; plurilocular sporangia not fixed in 

 number, 10-1 4/i wide, four or eight zoosporangia formed from a single 

 vegetative cell ; unilocular sporangia elliptical or oblong, terminal 

 on the shorter filaments, rarely catenulate. 



This new alga was collected on rocks which were exposed at low 

 tide, a few rods from the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory at Pacific 

 Grove, California. 



The plant consists of irregular, light brown, gelatinous thalli, 

 which are at first only a few millimeters in diameter ; later they 

 unite to form indefinite gelatinous masses a decimeter or so in 

 extent and one to three millimeters in thickness. The thalli are 

 composed of erect, unbranched filaments arising from a basal mass 

 which is two cells thick. The vegetative filaments are of two kinds ; 

 those which become transformed into plurilocular sporangia are 

 one-third to one-half millimeter in length ; the basal third of the 

 filament is composed of barrel-shaped cells 5.5// broad and twice as 

 long as wide ; the central cells of the filament are quadrangular, 

 the walls not at all barrel-shaped, 4 to 6// wide, two to three times 

 as long as wide, increasing slightly upward ; the cells of the distal 



Erythea, Vol. VII, No. 4 [1 April, 1899]. 



