NOTE ON STENOGRAMMA INTERRUPTA. 67 



Note on Stenogramma Interrupta (Agardh). By 

 E. Perceval Wright, M.D. 



In the number of ' Grevillea ' for December, 1874, and at 

 p. 88, there will be found a notice, by E. M. Holmes, of Steno- 

 gramma interrupta, in which the author states — 1. That 

 '* the tetrasporic fruit of this rare and beautiful Alga has 

 not hitherto been recorded as occurring in Britain.'^ 2. That 

 it "is not described iu any of the more recent works on 

 Marine Algse published in England." 3. That so far as the 

 author is aware, no figure of the tetraspoi'es has ever been 

 published. 4. That though Miss Giftbrd forwarded a speci- 

 men having tetraspores to Dr. W. H. Harvey in 1848, no 

 further notice of the plant was taken by him and that it was 

 probably lost. 



At the time when I read this notice I had. fully intended 

 to send to my friend the editor of ' Grevillea/ a reference to 

 the ' Phycologia Australica^ of Dr. Harvey, vol. iv, Plate 220, 

 published, during 1862, in which a very full account of this 

 interesting form will be found. I omitted to do so, and 1 

 would not have thought more of the subject, but that my 

 attention has again been called to it, partly by a communi- 

 cation from Mr. W. G. Farlow, assistant to Professor Asa 

 Gray of Cambridge, U.S., and partly by a reminder from a 

 friend to the effect that it is but an act of justice to the 

 memory of my former master (whose post as Professor of 

 Botany and Keeper of the Herbarium in Trinity College, 

 Dublin, I for the present occupy), to show that he did not 

 only receive but noticed Miss Gifford's letter. For this reason 

 the members of the Club will be pleased to pardon the 

 enumeration of the following to them perhaps familiar 

 facts : 



1. The "tetrasporic fruit" is described by Hai-vey " as 

 occurring in British specimens " iu 'Nereis Boreali- Americana,' 

 l^art ii (March, 1853). (a) In specimens sent to Dr. Harvey 

 ill 1848 by Miss Giftbrd, from Somersetshire. ())) In speci- 

 mens sent by Mr. Isaac Carroll in 1851 from Cork 

 Harbour. 



2. It is true that Harvey's ' Nereis Boreali- Americana ' was 

 not published in England, yet it is a very accessible and most 

 necessary work for the student of British Algae. Harvey's 

 ' Phycologia Australica ' was however published by Lovell 

 Reeve, at Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, and in 



