V. HELMINTnOCLADE.E. 137 



gelatinous. Fructification generally present. Colour a fine rosy or lake-red, becom- 

 ing darker and browner in drying. 



The largest of my Key West specimens is quarter of an inch in diameter, most 

 of the others scarcely the tenth of an inch. 



This species, first noticed on the east coast of England about fifty years ago, has 

 been brought from very distant localities. It is found in Europe from the Baltic 

 Sea to the shores of Spain, and in the Adriatic ; in Africa at the Cape of Good 

 Hope ; in Tasmania and New Zealand ; and on the coasts of Chili and of the Sand- 

 wich Islands. 



IV. LIAGORA. Lamour. 



Frond terete or compressed, dichotomous or pinnate, at length coated with a cal- 

 careous deposit, with a filamentous axis and continuous stratum of peripheric fila- 

 ments ; axis consisting of elongated, branching, interlaced, longitudinal filaments ; 

 periphery of horizontal, articulated, raoniliform, much branched filaments. Fructifi- 

 cation imperfectly known. 



Under this genus are placed several Algte of a gelatinous substance, formed of 

 interlacing, longitudinal and horizontal confervoid filaments, and coated at matu- 

 rity with a crust of carbonate of lime, organically deposited by the cellules of the 

 frond. In consequence of this calcareous coating, Lamouroux placed the genus 

 among the Tubularian Zoophytes ; an association which could only be made on 

 the most cursory observation of dried specimens. The elder Agardh therefore 

 early restored the genus to the Florideous Algce, to which group theu- colour indi- 

 cates an afiinity, while the structure of the frond is so very similar to that of Hel- 

 minthora or Nemalion, that, even in ignorance of the fructification, we should be 

 disposed to place them near those genera. The only other association which needs 

 to be spoken of is that proposed by Decaisne, who refers Liagora to his Batracho- 

 spermew. Against this arrangement the chief obstacle is that the BatracJiospermeo} 

 are fresh water Algtc and of the Chlorospermatous division, while LiagorcB are 

 marine and Rhodospermatous. It is true that some of them turn green in drying, 

 but they also at the same time partially decompose, and we know that almost any 

 red marine Algaj wll in decay assume a green tinge. On the other hand TJiorea, 

 and even some species of Batrachospermum itself, become violet when dry. I have 

 not seen fructification, which Prof. J. Agardh describes as " protruding beyond the 

 calcareous crust ; and composed of innumerable club-.shapcd, naked spore-threads 

 radiating from a central point." 



All the species are natives of the warmer parts of the sea, particularly of coral 



VOL. IV. AET. 5. T 



