156 CRYPTONEMIACE^. v. 



to C. erecta, from which it diflfers in being evidently compressed, and in the dull 

 pui'ple colour. 



2. CoRDYLECLADiA ? irregularis ; frond filiform, more or less hollow, setaceous, 

 rigid, densely tufted, irregularly branched, somewhat pinnate ; branches few, 

 opposite or secund, -widely spreading, simple, obtuse. 



Hab. Key West, Prof. Tuomeij, (5) Dr. Blodgett, (45) W. H. H. (.55) (v. v.) 



Frond in densely matted tufts, rising from fibres ? two to three inches higli, as 

 thick as hog's bristle, rigid, mostly hollow in the centre, very irregularly branched. 

 Some specimens are pretty regulai-ly pinnate, or sub-bi-pinnate, the pinna? mostly 

 opposite ; others (and these are more common) are set with numerous, lateral, 

 secund branches, which occasionally bear a second series of secund branchlets ; 

 and some fronds have both kinds of branching in difierent parts. All the branches 

 are patent, of unequal lengths. Colour a dark reddish brown, turning green in 

 fresh water, or in decay. A cross-section shows a single row of oblong, coloured, 

 peripheric cells, Avithin which are several rows of irregularly polygonal partially 

 coloured cells, gradually of larger size towards the centre of the axis, where there 

 is an irregular cavity (or deficiency of cells) of greater or less diameter. Substance 

 rigid. No fructification seen ; but some of the tips of the branches are slightly 

 expanded, as if designed to contain tetraspores. In drying it scarcely adheres to 

 pajjer. 



I am very doubtful of the generic relation of this plant, but can think of no 

 more convenient place to put it, the fruit being unknown, than in this genus. 



Oeder XI. CRYPTONEMIACE^. 



Cryptonemece and Gigartinew, with part of Dumontiece, J. Ag. Sp. Gen. and Ord. 

 Algarum, pp. 1G5, 229, 346. Cryptonemeoi {excl. gen.) J. Ag. Alg. Medit. p. QQ. 

 Endl. M. Suppl.p. 36. Harv. Man. Ed. %p. 131, ^c. 



Diagnosis. Purplish or rose-red sea-weeds, -wdth an inarticulate (cartilaginous, 

 horny, coriaceous, or gelatinous, rarely membranaceous) frond, composed whoUy 

 or in great part of articulated confervoid filaments, compacted together by gelatine ; 

 the membi'anous species sometimes composed of polygonal cells gradually smaller 

 toward the surface. Nucleus either sunk in the frond or lodged in an external 



