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Phycological studies — IV. The genus Neomeris and notes on 



other Siphonales 



Marshall Avkrv Howe 



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(with plates 1-8) 



A. THE GENUS NEOMERIS 



In an attempt to determine the relationships of a pecuh'ar ^Vr^- 

 ?U6'ns collected on Atwood Cay in the eastern Bahamas and later 

 on the Caicos Islands, it was found desirable to see the material on 

 which Neomeris dumetosa Lamour., the original species of the 

 genus, attributed to the Antilles, was founded. Having been al- 

 lowed to see presumably authentic specimens of N. dumetosa 

 through the courtesy of Monsieur R Hariot of the Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris, we were further enabled, through 

 the kindly interest of other European phycologists named below, 

 to evxamine plants from the Friendly Islands, Singapore, the Dutch 

 East Indies, etc, which had been identified with 

 iosa. A comparative study of these specimens 



rollprfpd in Eermuda. Florida, and the West Indi 



Neoi 



the genus consists, so far as is known, of six living species. We 

 have made no attempt to study the fossil forms that have been re- 

 ferred to the genus and we regret not being able to add anything 

 as to the still unknown germination phenomena of the so-called 



*' spore." 



Ne 



many other marine Siphonales of the tropics, remains to be worked 

 out by some one so situated as to have the living plants under 

 a more continuous and leisurely observation than has as yet fallen 

 to the lot of the writer. A brief diagnosis of the genus and more 

 detailed descriptions of the six species follow : 



Neomeris Lamour. Hist. Polyp. 241. 1816. 



Plants subcylindrical, clavate, or subfusiform, more or less 

 calcified, consisting of an erect normally simple and unconstricted 

 axis affixed at the base by branching orlobed holdfasts and bear- 

 numerous close-set whorls of 12-56 or more branches. 



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