96 ; Howe: Nortres oN BAHAMAN ALGAE 
branches of the third (and even the fourth) order are in harmony 
with the variations which the recent researches of Dr. Livingston * 
might lead us to expect would occur in a transition from salt to 
fresh or slightly brackish water. The variety /axws is almost des- 
titute of the yellowish staining matter which manifests itself so 
conspicuously in ordinary specimens of this genus whether dried 
or preserved in fluids. In all conditions of Coccocladus, the spor- 
angia appear to mature almost simultaneously in all parts of a 
plant, so that a considerable number of fertile individuals is needed 
to follow out the stages of spore-formation. In Dr. Coker’s ma- 
terial of the variety /arus, there occur two or three plants with 
smaller pyriform-obovoid sporangia showing numerous chloro- 
phyl-bodies, but apparently no spores ; these we take to be imma- 
ture aplanosporangia, but in the absence of direct observation of 
intervening stages the possibility that they represent sporangia of 
a different sort has suggested itself. 
Coccocladus occidentalis laxus evidently has a closer affinity 
with Coccocladus occidentalis Conquerantii,} judging from 
Cramer’s description, than with the typical C. occidentalis, but, we 
believe, differs too much from that to bear the same varietal 
name. The sporangia of C. occidentalis Conquerantii, according 
to Cramer, are at most only slightly ellipsoidal and occur only 
on branches of the first two orders. The number of spores to a 
sporangium and the size of the spores, characters which are in 
part relied upon by Cramer to separate his Botryophora Con- 
guerantit from his B. occidentalis, appear in a considerable series 
of specimens of this genus now accessible to be extremely variable 
and unreliable for a specific separation. And Cramer’s selection 
of a comparatively few-spored form for the typical C. occidentalis 
is hardly justified in view of Harvey’s description of the spores as 
‘innumerable,’ a characterization that is well substantiated by 
* Livingston, B. E, On the Nature of the Stimulus which causes the ss of 
Form in Polymorphic Green Algae, Bot. Gaz. 30: 289-317. G. Pi. 27; F8. 
——. The Réle of Diffusion and Osmotic Pressure in Plants. Dec. Pie Univ. 
Chicago, II. 8 
¢ Dasycladus a Crouan; Schramm & Mazé, Alg. Guadeloupe, 47 
1865. Mazé & Schramm, Alg. Guadeloupe, 108. 1870-77. 
Botryophora Gongueranti (Crouan) Cramer, Neue Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturf. 
Aces. 32: 6. gf. g 18 
