THE I'L'CACEJi: OF JAPAX. 45 



The stoiii is erect, cyliiulrical, usually l)rancliing at a short 

 distance from the holdfast. A few radical leaves are found 

 helow or near the diverging point of the stem. These leaves 

 are borne by very young individuals only, and seem to droj) off 

 at an early stage. They are Hat but thick and succulent, 

 yellowish brown, and slightly elevated along the median line ; 

 some are very small, ovate or clavate, hardly measuring 1 cm. 

 in length; some, however, grow to be as large as 4cm. by 1cm., 

 and are linear-spathulate, more or less tapering upwards, ending 

 in a round apex, with a short cylindrical petiole. I have seen 

 them frequently with undulating or even coarsely dentated 

 margins (fig. 2 and oa, b). 



The rami, as they are called, on the young and short 

 branches vary in shape according, it seems to me, to the locality. 

 In the plants found in the northern seas, they are short and 

 clavate with the apical portion inflated into a pyriform "vesicle." 

 In those of the southern seas the "vesicles" are mostly mucro- 

 uated or slightly tapering upward and seldom become fusiform. 

 The plants commonly found along the coast of middle and 

 southern Japan, and as far as Korea, have all the " rami " 

 several inches long, solid, cylindrical with equal diameter through- 

 out nearly the whole length; and frequently some of the "rami" 

 are elongated, clavate, complanated above and sparingly dentated. 

 In such forms the ramuli on the lateral branches are fusiform 

 and inflated. 



Generally speaking, the plants from cold seas are rich in 

 the clavate "rami"; while in those from warmer regions the 

 "rami" on the i)rincipal members are mostly filifürm, tlie fusi- 

 form rami being limited to the lateral branches. The formel- 

 coincide with the definition of ß. clavigenuti Harv. But it is 



