408 NOTE ON BONNEMAISONIA HAMIFERA HAR. 



crowded, the panicle more distinctly umbellate, the involucre 

 egiaudular, dark green, turning blackish or blackish green when 

 dry, the outer and middle bracts recurving or at least spreading 

 even in bud, a very distinctive feature of the species. //. Oi/weni 

 has since its introduction into my garden propagated itself freely, 

 and needed checking ; o( H. uinbellatwn I have seen but a single 

 seedling, though two plants of it have been flowering and fruiting with 

 me for some years. 



NOTE ON BONNEMAISONIA HAMIFEEA Hak. 

 By E. M. Holmes, F.L.S. 



This remarkable plant was first detected in this country by Mr, 

 T. H. Buffham, who, in August, 1893, found three specimens 

 floating in the sea at Falmouth. The plant was only known 

 previously as a native of Japan, and has hitherto been found 

 nowhere between that country and Great Britain. In May, 189G, 

 my friend Mr. E. George found it growing attached to other algre 

 at low water at Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight, and in August of 

 the same year I found it thrown up at the same place in some 

 quantity, but with the hooked branches only sparingly developed, 

 whereas in those found by Mr. George in May they were abundant. 

 Daring a visit to Falmouth in June, 1897, with my friend Mr. 

 George, I found about 120 specimens, aud my friend about twenty- 

 five, during a fortnight. Some of these were attached to Cystoseiru 

 granulata, Ceramium, and Corallina, in deep pools at low tide, over 

 a range of about eight miles; but the majority of the specimens 

 were floated in, showing that it is a deep-water species under 

 ordinary conditions. It so nearly resembles Dasi/a coccinea in 

 colour and in the rigidity of the ramuli that it might easily be 

 passed over as that plant. It is not likely, however, that it could 

 have been passed over by any one who mounted a specimen, and 

 no specimens of it occur in collections made by Falmouth algolo- 

 gists during the last fifty years, so far as can be ascertained. It is 

 only possible to conceive, therefore, that pieces must have become 

 detached from Japanese ships arriving in this country, and having 

 found suitable conditions of temperature, and having attached 

 themselves by the hooked branches to other plants, have become 

 naturalized in this country. These branches gradually thicken, 

 and so grasp firmly any object to which they are attached. 



There is one other alga, NitophjUum venuLosum Zau., the presence 

 of which in this country can, I think, only be regarded as arising 

 from the same cause. It is an Adriatic species, not recorded, so 

 far as I am aware, anywhere between that sea and Plymouth, 

 where it has been collected during the last fifty years by various 

 algologists, but was mistaken for lihodophijUis bifida until I pointed 

 out in GreviUca, ii. 2 (July, 1873), that the plant was a Nitopkijllum, 

 having tripartite instead of zonate tetraspores. This plant is not 

 known to occur elsewhere in Britain, and there seems to be no other 

 explanation of its occurrence possible than that it must have been 



