20 RHODOMELACE^. v. 



Frond 4-6 inches long, as thick as sparrow's quill, much branched, either with a 

 leadino- stem pinnated or bipinnated with lateral, closely set, patent branches ; or 

 alternately or irregularly multifid, the branches straight or curved, spreading in 

 all directions. Branches once or twice compound, sometimes nearly naked, but 

 oftener densely clothed mth ramuli about a Hue in length, and very much con- 

 stricted at the base, acute or obtuse at the apex. Conceptacles ovate, wide-mouthed, 

 sessile on the ramuli. Tetraspores in the ramuli of distinct plants. Colour a dark 

 reddish-brown, fading to yellow. Substance cartilaginous, less apt to decompose, 

 than others of the genus. In drying it adheres to paper. 



Perhaps only a variety of Ch. dasyphyUa, but the habit is very peculiar. 



Plate XVIII. G. Fig. 1. Branch of Chondria sedifolla, the natural size. Fig. 

 2, small portion, with ramuli and conceptacles, magnified. 



2. Chondria dasyphglla, Ag. ; frond robust, elongate, alternately much branched; 

 branches simple or decompound, beset with short, clubshaped or topshaped, blunt 

 ramuli, much constricted at the base. Ag. syst. Alg. p. 205. Laurencia dasyphylla, 

 Grev. — Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 152. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 853. Fucus dasyphyllus, Turn. 

 Hist. t. 22. F. Bat. t. 847. 



Hab. On Algte, &c. between tide marks. Annual. Newport, Mr. Olney. Pe- 

 conic Bay, Prof. Bailey, and W. H. H. Key West, W. H. H., Dr. Blodgett, (23, 24) 

 (v. V.) 



Fronds tufted, 6-12 inches long, as thick as a crow quill, cylindrical, not much 

 attenuated upwards. Stem rarely parted towards the base into several branches, 

 generally undivided, set with lateral branches which are either simple or furnished 

 Avith a second or third series. Ramuli a quarter to half an inch long, blunt, much 

 constricted at the base. Colour a purple brown, becoming duller in drying. The 

 substance of the growing plant is firm and cartilaginous, but soon becomes flaccid 

 in the air, and if left a short time in fresh water the ramuli fall off and the frond 

 rapidly decomposes, tinging the water dark brown. It closely adheres to paper in 

 drying. 



The North American specimens are a little different from the common European 

 form, most of the ramuli, though blunt, being rounded, not truncate at the top. 

 In one of my Greenport specimens, however, I find the ramuli as abruptly truncate 

 as in the normal condition of the species. 



3. Chondria Baileyana, Mont. ; frond setaceous, much branched below ; branches 

 long and virgate, erect, subsimple, beset throughout with scattered, simple or pin- 

 nated, slender, curved ramuh which are greatly attenuated to the base and 

 obtuse at the apex ; conceptacles pedicellate, on the ramuli. Laurencia Baileyana, 

 Mont, in A7i. sc. nat. 3rd Ser. Vol. 2, p. 63. (Tab. XVIII. A.) var. /3. with a 

 leading stem closely pinnated with lateral branches. 



