Q6 RHODOMELACE^. y. 



branched, alternately divided, straight, hairlike raraelli ; internodes of the stem 

 about once and half as long as broad, of the ramelli many times longer than their 

 diameter ; fruit unknown. Mont. An. Sc. N4.1t. 1842, p. 254. Polysiphonia lopho- 

 clados, Kiltz. Sp. Alg. p. 834. 



Hab. Floating in the sea near Key West, Prof. M. Tuomey (No. 6). (v. s. in 

 Herb. T. C. D.) 



Stems 3-4 inches long or more, as thick as hog's bristle, attenuated upwards, 

 several times irregularly forked, the divisions widely spreading with very obtuse 

 angles, the lesser branches more and more irregularly forked, the ultimate ones 

 alternately divided. The lower parts of the stem are subopaque ; the larger 

 branches generally exhibit more or less definite veiny internodes, and the smaller 

 branches are clearly articulate, their internodes once and half as long as broad, 

 thinly coated with minute cells. A cross section of a branch shows four large 

 primary tubes, four secondaries and several external cells. The ramelli are very 

 slender, about a line long, or a little longer, straight, erectopatent, spreading on all 

 sides and abundantly clothing the lesser divisions of the frond ; they are less fre- 

 quent on the larger branches, and altogether wanting in the lower parts. They 

 are not much branched, between alternately pinnate and dichotomous, their 

 branches simple, very long and straight. The articulations toward the base of the 

 ramellus are twice or thrice as long as broad, in the middle part 8-10 times their 

 diameter. The colour of the stem is brownish, that of the ramelli a purple lake, 

 browner in drying and greenish in decay. The substance is soft and delicate. In 

 drying, it adheres closely to paper. 



I have compared ray specimen with a fragment of Dr. Montague's Haytian one, 

 and they seem of the same species. The fruit is not known, but the habit is that of 

 Lophothalia, and should this subgenus ever rank as a genus, this species ought to be 

 called L. Montagnei. 



Subgenus 4. Stichocarpus. Frond more or less obviously articulate, many- 

 tubed, crimson-lake, decompound-pinnate, distichous, the ultimate pinnules (ramelli) 

 single tubed, simple, subulate. 



9. Dasya (Stichocarpus) plumosa, Bail, and Harv.; frond inarticulate, com- 

 pressed, two-edged, distichously bi-tripinnate ; the pinnte elongate, pinnules short, 

 both alternate and densely beset with distichous, often opposite, straight, simple or 

 forked, single-tubed ramelli ; articulations of the ramelli thrice as long as broad. 

 Bail, and Harv. in Bot. Expl. Exped. 



Hab. Puget's Sound, Capt. Wilkes, (v. s. in Herb. Sm. Inst.) 



A single imperfect specimen of this plant is all that I have seen. The fruit is 

 unknown ; the habit is that of a Ptilota, but a cross section of the stem shows the 



