Howe: Notes on BAHAMAN ALGAE 95 
been influenced chiefly by the “articulis multo brevioribus quam 
in aliis speciebus’” * * * * “diametro vix longioribus.” But 
the articuli of the original Conferva umbilicata as figured by Vel- 
ley (Trans. Linn. Soc. 5: pl. 7. 1800) are also often “ diametro 
vix longioribus,” even though J. Agardh * describes the articuli of 
Microdictyon umbilicatum as “ circiter 4-plo longioribus.”’ Velley’s 
specimens were from New South Wales, and J. Agardh’s remark, 
“Quae prima vice ad insulas Sandwich detecta fuit C. wmbilicalis, 
eandem quoque ad Novam Hollandiam obvenire statuit C. Agardh 
(Syst. p. 85),” seems to indicate that he had seen neither the original 
plants nor the original description and figures of the first-described 
species of the genus. 
Coccocladus + occidentalis laxus var. nov. 
Fertile plants reaching 7 cm. in height and 10-13 mm. in 
width, flaccid: sporangia obovoid, oblong-ellipsoidal, or pyriform- 
subclavate, 460~880 2 x 315-430 p, often twice as long as broad, 
lateral or occasionally terminal at the ends of branches of the first 
three (rarely four) orders: aplanospores for a long time closely 
coherent in a single peripheral layer surrounding a central cavity, 
radially elongated, 66-85 » x 55-72, mostly 1%4 times as long 
as broad, usually angular-obovoid or ellipsoidal. (PLATE 6, FIG- 
URES I AND 2, ; 
In small sink-holes by Big Pond, Nassau, June 23, 1903. 
This remarkable plant is so strikingly different from the usual 
form of Coccocladus occidentalis as to suggest at first sight not 
only a distinct species, but even a different genus, yet in the pres- 
ence of some apparently intermediate forms from other collections 
we dare not propose for it a rank higher than that of variety ; 
though it is possible that a fuller knowledge of its life-history 
would lead to another conclusion. Dr. Coker writes that the plant 
grows “about one mile inland,” in slightly brackish water which 
responds to the changes of the tide. The lax habit, the elongated 
Sporangia, and extension of the sporangium-bearing capacity to 
bos TOR. 
t Coccoctapus Cramer, Neue Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturf. Ges. 30: — (37). 
1887, 
Botryophora J. Ag. Till Alg. Syst. 5: 139. 1887. Wille, E. & P. 
Pflanzenfam. 12: 157. 1891. Not Botryophora Bompard, Hedwigia, 6: 129. 1867. 
neric type of Coccocladus, as also of J. Agardh’s Botryophora, is Dasycladus 
he ge 
occidentalis Harv. Ner. Bor.-Am. 3: 38. pl. gr B. 1858. 
