PARASITIC FLORIDF^Lv: OF THE CALIFORNIAN COAST. 81 



Eriouonum scalare Wats., Proc. Am. Acnd. xii, 261. To 

 this species belongs E. irretltum Brandg. Proc. Cal. Acad., ser. 2, ii, 

 202. Mr. C. R. Orcutt has collected E. scalare at El Rosario near 

 the original localit}', which was "Canvas Point," a misreading for 

 "Canoas." Mr. Brandegee's specimens were collected in the interior 

 nearer the east than the west coast, and are of somewhat different 

 habit. 



SOME PARASITIC FLORIDEJ^ OF THE CALIFORNIAN 



COAST. 

 By Charles Palmer Nott. 



THii following genera of parasitic Floridese were obtained by the 

 writer in collections made at various times during 1896-97 at the 

 localities named. 



Sterrocolax decipiens Schmitz was found on its host Ahnfeldiia 

 plicata (Hudson) Fries, at Matunec Beach, Rhode Island, in Jan- 

 uary, 1896, and again in December, 1896, at Pacific Grove, Cali- 

 fornia. The specimens from Rhode Island were obtained from 

 floating fronds of the Ahnfeldtia, washed ashore after a heavy 

 southern gale, while those from the Californian shore were collected 

 on the growing plants. 



The parasite grows in abundance upon all parts of the Ahnfeldtia 

 fronds, but is especially plentiful upon the upper branches. It 

 forms knobby, wart-like, reddish-black excrescences, seldom pro- 

 jecting far above the surface of the host plant; so that it is with 

 difficulty distinguished from the latter. Microtome sections were 

 made to ascertain the internal structure and the nature of the 

 connection with the host. The rhizoidal filaments grow out from 

 amongst the radially arranged cortical cell-rows of the Ahnfeldtia, 

 and resemble the latter so closely that the radiating cell-filaments 

 of the parasite seem to be prolongations of portions of the Ahn- 

 feldtia tissue. The thick-walled, closely-crowded rows of cells of 

 the Sterrocolax form hemispherical or elliptical cushions of radiating 

 cell-filaments, at whose apices are borne the single so-called spo- 

 rangia, each containing a single spore. The latter, so far as could 

 be ascertained, did not divide in any vray, but escaped vrhole from 

 the sj)orangi;i. 



