190 CRYPTONEMIACE^. v. 



brownish in drying. Substance very gelatinous. In drying, the frond shrinks and 

 adheres very strongly to paper. 



The name is bestowed in honour of my friend Prof. J. G. Agardh, to whose opi- 

 nion (as expressed in a private letter) I yield in retaining this species and its allies 

 for the present in Chrijsymmia. They differ, as already stated, from the genuine 

 species in having a far more obvious plexus of filaments occupying the centre of 

 the frond. 



Plate XXX. A. Chrystmenia ? Agardhii ; the natural size. Fig. 2, a section of 

 the frond, and fig. 3, a small portion of the same ; fig. 4, section of a conceptacle ; 

 all highly magmfied. 



4. CnRYSYMENiA (Cryptarachne) ramosissima ; frond compressed below, terete 

 above, distichously much branched ; branches patent, with rounded axils, tapering 

 to the base and apex, successively narrower and repeatedly compound, the lesser 

 ones margined with a few spines ; ramuli either filiform, or, when fertile, fusiform, 

 acute and irregularly spinulose ; conceptacles depressed, or sunk in the fusiform 

 ramuli, sphajroidal. (Tab. XXX. B.) 



Hab. Thrown up from deep water ; rare. Key West, W. H. H. (v. v.) 



Frond eight to twelve inches long and six to eight inches in the expansion of the 

 branches. Main stem sub-simple, rising from a cartilaginous stipe as thick as a 

 crowquill, soon widening to half an inch in breadth, compressed, tapering gradually 

 to the summit, more or less cylindrical above. This principal stem is furnished 

 throughout, at short distances, with lateral, very patent, distichous branches, issu- 

 ing at very obtuse angles, tapering to the base and apex like the main stem ; of 

 various lengths, short and long intermixed without order ; the larger ones repeat- 

 edly compound in a similar manner. In some specimens the secondary and tertiary 

 branches are very closely set, scarcely more than a line or two apart ; in others 

 they are much more distant. The fertile and barren specimens are also very unlike ; 

 the latter are much more branched, the branches narrower and more finely divided, 

 and the ramuli very slender and abundant ; the former (like that in our figure) have 

 most of the ramuli swollen, broadly fusiform, acute, and sub-dentate. Conceptacles 

 lodged in the swollen ramuli, depressed. Colour., when growing, a fine, clear rosy 

 red, becoming brownish in drying. Substance membranaceous, filled with loose 

 gelatine, which is expelled under pressure, and apt to stain the paper on which the 

 specimen is displayed. 



Plate XXX. B. Chrysymenia ramosissima, lower part of a fertile specimen ; the 

 natural size. Fig. 2, a ramulus containing conceptacles ; fig. 3, vertical section 

 through a conceptacle ; fig. 4, longitudinal section of a branch ; fig. 5, filaments of 

 the medullary stratum ; fig. 6, transverse section of a branch ; the latter figures 

 variously magnified. 



