V. RHODOMELACE^. 27 



Hab. Prince Edward's Island, Dr. Jeans. Halifax, W. H. H. Boston Harbour, 

 Mr. G. B. Emerson. Plymouth, Massachussetts, Prof. J. W. Bailey, (v. v.) 



Frond from four to ten or twelve inches long, divided a little above the base 

 into a multitude of slender stems, about twice the diameter of hog's bristle below, 

 but soon attenuated and reduced to a hair-like fineness. Stems many times decom- 

 pound in an alternate or secund order, spuriously dichotomous by the occasional 

 suppression of a branch ; the axils distant, rounded. Secondary branches long, and 

 about bipinnate ; the pinnje distant, simple below, alternately or subdicbotomously 

 multifid beyond the middle. Ultimate ramidi capillary, very much attenuated, 

 and tipped with a pencil of slender, dichotomous fibrils. Sometimes the ramuli 

 are densely crowded at the ends of the branches, sometimes not so. Conceptacles 

 broadly ovate, on short stalks, racemose along the terminal ramuli, very abundant 

 on fertile plants. Tefraspores in pairs, immersed in the slender ultimate ramuli 

 which then become beaded by the bulging out of the tetraspores, which are nmch 

 broader than the places where they occur. Colour a brownish red, becoming dark 

 brown in drying. Substance very soft and lubricous. In drying, this plant adheres 

 closely to paper. 



Allied to E. subfusca, with which Agardh unites it, but differing in being of very 

 much softer substance, more bushy and decompound, and especially in the large 

 size of the tetraspores, causing the beaded appearance of the fertile ramuli. I have 

 very numerous specimens from Dr. Jeans, presenting several varieties. Some to 

 the naked eye have the aspect of Polysiphonia Brodkei, for which they may readily 

 be mistaken without microscopic examination ; others resemble Pol. violacea out- 

 wardly. All adhere with great closeness to paper, and must have been very lubri- 

 cous when fresh. 



Plate XIII. C. Fig. 1. Upper portion of a dichotomo-multifid branchlet of 

 Rhodojiela gracilis with tetrasporic fruit ; fig. 2, moniliform apex of one of the 

 ultimate ramuli of the same ; Jig. 3, a tetraspore ; Jig. 4, a conceptacle ; Jig. 5, 

 transverse section of a branch ; all the figures more or less magnijied. 



6. Rhodomela Rochei ; frond setaceous, flaccid, rosy red, terete, decompound, 

 pinnate, distichous ; lesser branches bipinnate ; pinnte naked below, pinnulate 

 beyond the middle ; pinnules fastigiate, bifid or multifid at the tips, and copiously 

 fibrilliferous ; conceptacles racemose, on longish stalks. (Tab. XIII. B.) 



Hab. New Bedford, Massachussetts, Dr. M. B. Roche and Mr. C. Congdon. Yel- 

 low Hook, New York, j\tr. Walters and Mr. Hooper, (v. s. in Herb. T.C.D.) 



Fro7id four to eight inches long, setaceous at base, attenuated upwards and at 

 length capillary, divided from the base into many decompoundly pinnate branches 

 or secondary stems. Lesser branches alternate or secund, distichous, patent, one to 

 three inches long, bipinnate or tripinnate, oblong in outline, obtuse and fastigiate. 

 Pinnce naked for the lower half, pinnated above, the pinnuke spreading and bifid, 



E 2 



