572 Howe; Phycological studies 



Sarcomenia Jilamc7itosa does not appear to be very closely re- 

 lated to any of the described species of this chiefly Australian 

 genus. The only other species to which monosiphonous filaments 

 are attributed are, so far as we can discover, the Australian Sarco- 

 m€7iia f c ncra (Harv.) J, Ag., S. dolicJiocystidea J, Ag., 5. opposita J. 

 Ag. and S, seamdata J. Ag., but these are all much coarser plants 

 with Dasyoid or Cliftonioid rather than Polysiphonioid habit, and 

 the origin and arrangement of the branchlets and monosiphonous 

 filaments are more or less different in all of these. In its delicate 

 Polysiphonioid habit, S. filamciitosa is nearer the group which 

 includes S. mimata (Ag.) J. Ag. (the type of which we have seen 

 in hb. Agardh), S. hitermcdia Grunow, and S. imitabilis (Harv.) 

 J» Ag., but these differ not only in absence of monosiphonous 

 filaments, but also in cortex characters, etc.; in S. mtttabilis^ also, 

 the branches have a marginal or submarginal instead of mid-ven- 

 tral origin. 



The apparent incongruity of referring delicate plants of the 

 mimata type to a genus originally based upon the fleshy mem- 

 branous Sarcomenia delesseiioides has already been remarked by 

 Grunow * and discussed at length by J, Agardh.f In placing the 

 above-described new species in Sarcomoiia, w^e accept, for the 

 present, the current conception of the limits of the genus. 



The plant changes color and partially decomposes very soon 

 after being collected, even though placed in a moderate amount of 

 sea-water. It adheres most firmly to paper on drying yet recovers 

 its form well on being soaked out if the material was originally 

 good and properly prepared. 



Dudresnaya crassa sp. nov. 



Rose-colored when living, dingy-purple or brownish-red on 

 drying, densely ramose, lubricous, subpyramidal in contour, 6-8 

 cm. high, the primary branches appearing irregularly i-2-pinnate 

 when pressed on paper, the secondary and tertiary branches then 

 mostly confluent, unequal in length, vermiform, apices obtuse; 

 branches of all orders of nearly uniform diameter throughout, 1-2 

 mm. thick in natural state, 1.5-3 "^"^- ^fter pressure, all parts 

 very closely adherent to paper : monosiphonous axis much 



*Reise seiner Majeslat Fregatte Novara um die Erde. Bot. Theil 1 : 93. 1867. 

 ■(•AnaL Alg. Cont. 5 : 130. 1S99. 



