Howe : Phycological studies 83 



of the second order in the mature stage forming a cortex with 

 irregularly hexagonal facets in mostly very irregular transverse 

 rows or often without recognizable order, each pair of corticating 

 branches lying in a transverse or somewhat oblique plane, the 

 corticating branches occasionally in threes, cortex rather pliable, 

 commonly persistent in the upper half, plants of a younger 

 stage often somewhat extensively corticated by inflations of the 

 primary branches : branches of the first order in adult fertile parts 

 240-4 1 0/i long, 32-42/^ in diameter in their basal and median 

 parts, mostly 6-10 times as long as their median diameter, lightly 

 calcified, free, persistent, the main axis commonly clothed for a 

 space of 10-15 "^^' i*^ t^^^ lower sterile half by clavate 2-scarred 

 long-persistent scarcely calcified primary branches 1 50-240 fi 

 long ; branches of the second order mostly in pairs but now and 

 then in threes, capitate, the terminal inflations 116-215 fx m great- 

 est diameter, outwardly mammiform, subconical, domed, or merely 

 arcuate, their walls firm, the pedicels uncalcified, the terminal in- 

 flations lightly or moderately calcified proximally, their outer sur- 

 faces uncalcified : sporangia rather strongly calcified, mutually free, 

 first appearing at about 15 mm. from base of the mature plant, 

 185-210/^ long (decalcified and including stalk), the calcareous 

 capsules ii-28/i thick; spores subglobose or slightly obovoid, 

 142-172 /-«x 132-144 /i. [Plate i, figure 3; plate 5, figures 

 15, 16.] 



Neomeris stipitata was collected at Singapore by Mr. H. N. 



Ridley or on^ of his assistants and was described and figured with 

 much thoroughness and detail by Dr. Arthur H. Church of Jesus 

 College, Oxford, in the Annals of Botany in 1895, as quoted 

 above. Type material of the species is preserved in the herbarium 

 of the New York Botanical Garden and in the botanical depart- 

 ment of the museum of Oxford University. 



Neomeris stipitata dlfTers rather strikingly in several particulars 

 from the other members of the N. dumetosa group. The speci- 

 mens, which have been preserved in alcoholic media (ours trans- 

 ferred lately to 50 per cent, glycerine), are, at the present time, at 

 least, very much less calcified than those of any other known 

 species of the genus. Dr. Church writes us that he believes they 

 have lost fully 50 per cent, of their lime since he studied them in 

 1 895. but even at that time {loc. cit. 582) he was impressed by 

 their "delicately calcified " condition as compared with the "densely ' 

 calcified " N. KelUri Cramer. Another peculiarity of N. stipitata 

 is found in its long sterile basal portion, constituting nearly half 



