108 SPH^ROCOCCOIDE^. v. 



ter to half an inch or more. These lacinia? are sometimes strap-shaped and nearly 

 simple, or having at one side a few lateral lobes ; sometimes they are secuudly or 

 alternately multifid ; sometimes nearly regularly dichotomous, sometimes palma- 

 tifid ; and frequently the summits of long, nearly simple lobes are shortly palmate. 

 Apices acute, somewhat attenuate, often jagged or irregularly cleft. A.rils rounded 

 but not very wide. The colour is a dark brownish purple, changing to greenish on 

 exposure. The substance is thickish, cartilaginous, and rather brittle. Conceptacles 

 prominent, and generally very abundant on the branches of fertile specimens. In 

 drying, it adheres to paper. 



Var. yS. which Prof. Bailey finds growing in vast quantities on a sandy bottom, 

 is for the most part so exceedingly slender that it may readily be taken for a distinct 

 species, or even confounded with G. confervoides. I have however distinctly traced 

 the connection between the narrowest form and the ordinary one, and this through 

 an extensive series of specimens collected from various localities. Even among 

 Prof Bailey's specimens from Providence there is considerable variation in breadth 

 and flatness. 



3. Gracilaria co??zprssa, Grev. ; frond succulent, brittle, somewhat compressed, 

 alternately or subdichotomously branched ; branches long and mostly simple, 

 tapering to a fine point ; conceptacles ovate or subglobose, sessile, prominent, 

 numerous, scattered. /. Ag. Sp. Alg. 2, p. 593. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 205. Sphcero- 

 coccus lichenoides, Grev. Crypt. Scot. t. 341. 



Has. Gulf of Mexico, at Vera Cruz, KUtziny, Sp. Alg. p. 774. (v. s. in Herb. 

 T.C.D.) 



I have not seen any American specimen of this plant. British ones are 6 — 12 

 inches long, the branches 1 — 2 lines in diameter, succulent and brittle, of a beautiful 

 transparent lake-red. Some varieties of Solieria chordalis have externally a consi- 

 derable resemblance to this, but the fructification and the internal structure of the 

 fi'ond are widely different. 



4. QinkciLAm A confervoides, GreY.; frond cartilaginous, cylindrical, filiform, iri-e- 

 gularly (often very slightly) branched ; branches long, subsimple, erect, attenuate ; 

 ramuli few, tapering at each end ; conceptacles sessile, scattered, roundish or conical. 

 J. Ag. Sp. Alg. 2, p. 587. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 65. Fiicus confervoides, L. Turn. 

 Hist. t. 84. E. Bot. t. 1068. Var. y8. longissimus, frond very long, nearly simple, 

 naked or with a few filiform lateral branches. 



Hab. Key West, Mr. Binney, Dr. Blodgett (40). Apalachicola, Capt. Pike (36). 

 Var. /3. dredged in Charleston Harbour, W. H. H. (v. v.) 



The ordinary specimens of this variable species are six or eight inches long, as 



