THE FUCACEiE OF JAPAN. 125 



Vesicles are found solitary near the insertion point of a 

 lateral branch. They are elliptico-spherical, with or without 

 cryptostomata, and mucronated or crowned with a simple serrated 

 leaflet on the apex. The stipe is usually shorter than the length 

 of the vesicle. 



Keceptacles are obovate or elliptical, complanated with an- 

 cipitous edges, more or less concave on one surface and convex 

 on the other ; the apical, occasionally the whole, margin is 

 minutely toothed. They are usually found solitary at the axil 

 formed by a leaf and the stem of a lateral branch, but some- 

 times two or three of them, each accompanied by a leaflet at 

 its base, are borne racemously on a poorly developed minor 

 ramulet. 



var, stipiUata Yexdo. Prelim. List of Fiic. Jap. p. 158. 



Plate XV. Fig. 18-21. 



= Sargassum inicraeanthum J. Ac4.: Aual. Alg. Cont. III. p. 52. 

 Diagnosis. Foliis fulcrautibus late stipulatis, stipulis margiue dentatis sur- 

 suiu marginibus rachidis confluentibus. 



Remark on var. stipulata. This variety has several note- 

 worthy characters which enable us to distinguish it from var. typlca. 

 If only extreme forms of both varieties were compared, it would 

 doubtless seem to be improper to range them under the same 

 species. On com2:>aring a large number of specimens, however, the 

 characters to distinguish both varieties are often hardly detectable 

 and they may be connected by various intermediate forms. 



In this variety the basal portion of the complanated petiole 

 of a fulcrant leaf is enormously expanded, with irregular dentation 

 on the outer margins, and gives an appearance of stipules (fig. 

 20). The margins of the " stipules " become confluent with the 



