RHODOMELACE^. 4 1 



13. PoLYSiPHONiA Ilarvei/i, Bail. ; tufts globose and bushy ; filaments rather 

 rigid, setaceous, divaricately much branched , branches alternately decompound, 

 very patent, often angularly bent, set throughout with more or less numerous, short 

 simple, or forked, spinelike ramuli ; internodes short in all parts of the frond, once 

 or twice as long as broad in the branches, much shorter than their breadth in the 

 lesser divisions and ramuli, four-tubed ; dissepiments pellucid ; conccptacles broadly 

 ovate near the tips of the branches ; tetraspores in distorted ramuli. Jiail. in 

 SilUm. Jouni. — (Tab. XVII. A.) — ^ arietina ; very squavrose, the ramuli strongly 

 revolute and curled. Pol. arlettna, Ball. MS. 



Hab. On Zostera and other marine plants. Boston Bay, D7\ Diirkee, Mrs. 

 Mudge, Mr. Girard, etc. Abundant in Long Island Sound ; Stonington, Prof. 

 Bailey (1840) ; Greenport, Long Island, both varieties, Prof. Bailey and ]V. H. H. 



This forms globose, squarrose, loose tufts, Avhich do not collapse, when lifted from 

 the water, if the plant be quite fresh. Filaments often, but not always, as thick as 

 hog's bristle at the base, attenuated upwards, excessively branched and bushy ; the 

 branches dividing repeatedly without much order, alternate or secund, widely 

 spreading, often much divar-icated. Lesser branches variable in number and in 

 subdivision, sometimes very few and little divided, sometimes numerous. Ramuli 

 generally very abundant, half a line to a line long, spinelike, simple or forked, 

 subulate, very patent, sprinkled irregularly over all the branches, large and small. 

 Internodes generally very short in all parts of the stem and branches, but variable 

 in length in different specimens and at different ages. Those of the lower part of 

 the stem show, on a cross section, four primary and four small secondary external 

 tubes. Those of the branches are sometimes shorter than their breadth, somerimes 

 twice as long ; in the latter case the coloured tubes are often spirally twisted. The 

 pellucid integument of the filament is tliick, and the nodes are generally swollen. 

 CoJiceptacles broadly ovate, usually placed near the ends of the branches. Tetra- 

 spores of small size, in distorted ramuli. Colour a very dark, purplish brown «S>//)- 

 stance firm, rigid. In drying, the plant adheres, but not firnily, to paper. 



/S is smaller, and still more squarrose, with its spinelike ranudi strongly recurved 

 or rolled back like a " ram's horn." I think, however, that I have traced it, through 

 numerous specimens, into the ordinary form. Sometimes the frond is much more 

 densely branched than our figure, taken from one of the original specimens, shows. 

 The obvious characters of the species are the abundant tliornlike ramuli and short 

 joints. 



This plant is common in various places in Long Island Sound. While dredging 

 with Professor BaiUy in Peconic Bay, our exclamations of delight on hauling up 

 some specimens of it attracted the notice of one of our boatmen, who took up a 

 handful of what we seemed so eagerly hoarding, but immediately threw it down 

 with a " Pooh ! that's what ice call ' nigger-hair.' " 



Plate XVII. A. Fig. 1, frond of Polysipiionia Hai-veyi, the natural size. Fig. 2, 

 apex of a branch ; fig. 3, ramulus with tetraspores ; fig. 4, a tetraspore ; fig. 5, 



G 



