88 Howe : Phycological studies 



fourths and regularly reticulate or reticulate-alveolate on drying ; 

 plants of the younger stages often more or less corticated by irregu- 

 lar inflations of the primary branches : branches of the first order 

 in the adult stage 200-280 /i long, 1 1-20 // in diameter in their 

 basal and median parts, mostly 1 2-2 1 times as long as their median 

 diameter, at length strongly calcified and often more or less coher- 

 ent laterally, the width of the intervening hme-masses commonly 

 less than the diameter of the branches, which are persistent or some- 

 times deciduous in basal parts : branches of the second order 

 strongly calcified and coherent by a continuous lime layer, capitate, 

 the terminal inflations 80-135 /^ in greatest diameter, outwardly 

 gently arcuate or rounded-obtuse, occasionally acute or subrostrate, 

 rather firm-walled, their outer surfaces uncalcified : sporangia 

 strongly calcified and coherent laterally by their capsules, forming 

 nearly complete or more or less interrupted transverse rings, mostly 

 165-230 ft long (decalcified and including stalk), the calcareous 

 capsules 15-60/i thick; spores oblong-obovoid to oblong-ellip- 

 soidal, 115-175 jiX 46-80 fx, usually about twice as long as 



broad. [Plate i, figure 2.] 



Type locality: Mauritius; type specimen in the herbarium 

 of the British Museum (Natural History). 



Distribution : Bermuda, southern Florida, and the West In- 

 dies ; Mauritius, Madagascar, Savoe (Dutch East Indies, Weber- 

 van Basse) ; reported by Solms also from Cobija, Bolivia (now 

 Chile) and from Tongatabu, Friendly Islands. The Mauritius 

 type of N. anmdata we have seen in the herbarium of the British 

 Museum, but we have not made a microscopic examination of it. 

 Judging, however, from the excellent figures given by Cramer and 

 by Solms, and from East Indian specimens kindly communicated 

 by Madame Weber- van Bosse, there is nothing to indicate that the 



plant of the Atlantic Ocean can be distinguished even varietally 

 from that of the Indian and Pacific oceans. We have thus far 

 collected Neomeris ammlata at twenty-one stations in Bermuda, 

 southern Florida, the Bahamas, Porto Rico, and Jamaica ; Borge- 

 sen has reported the species from four stations in the Danish West 

 Indies ; and Miss Vickers has figured it from Barbados specimens. 

 It grows on rocks, stones, and shells, In sheltered or moderately 

 exposed places, usually near the low-water mark, though Dr. 

 Borgesen records a specimen from a depth of 50 m. in the Danish 

 West Indies. 



