206 CERAMIACEiE. v. 



Hab. At Sand Key, riorida, W. H. H. (74.) (v. v.) 



Fronds densely tufted, four to five inches long, as thick as sparrow's quill below, 

 gradually attenuated, setaceous above, branched on every side, bushy, excessively 

 divided. Brandies virgate, two or three inches long, with a lanceolate outline, 

 closely set with lateral, simple or alternately compounded lesser branches. All the 

 younger parts of the frond are beset with scattered ramelli half a line to a line in 

 length, articulated, the nodes more or less coated mth accessory cells and the apex 

 armed with three (or rarely four) hooked prickles, of which one is terminal and the 

 others lateral. Colour a fine pui"plish lake. Substance soft, soon decomposing in 

 fresh water. In drying, it adheres to paper. 



A much more densely branched and more feathery plant than any variety of S. 

 filamentosa which I have seen, and readily distinguished by the hooked spines which 

 terminate the ramelli. On many of my specimens some of the branches are in- 

 crassated below the apex; the incrassated portion bare of ramelli and strongly 

 revolute, forming a short tendril. They were not found attached, however, by these 

 hooks to any neighbouring Algas. 



Order XIII. CEEAMIACE^. 



CeramiecB^ J. Acj. Sp. Gen. and Ord. Algarum, vol. 2, p. 1. Ceramiece, J. Ag. 

 Alg. Med. p. 69. {in part). Endl. Gen. PI. Suppl. 3, p. 34. ffarv. Man. Ed. 2, 

 p. 156, ^-c. 



Diagnosis. Rosy or red brown sea-weeds, with a filiform, articulate, or partially 

 or entirely corticated, monosiphonous frond ; the outer coat (when present) formed 

 of polygonal cells. Conceptacles naked or involucrated favellce; that is, masses of 

 roundish-angular congregated spores, enclosed in a hyaline gelatino-membranaceous 

 saccate envelope. Tetraspores external or superficial, formed either from the ulti- 

 mate ramuli of the simpler fronds, or the cortical cells of the coated ones. 



Natural Character. Fronds generally growing in dense tufts, sometimes 

 solitary, rising either from creeping fibres or more commonly from discoid roots. 

 In the simpler species, the frond consists of an articulated filament, formed of a 

 number of cylindrical cells or articidations, jJaced end to end. This filament is 



