158 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



small brauchlets, winch become swollen and usually have an opening on each side for 

 the escape of the spores. A longitudinal section shows an asile placenta which 

 passes through the cystocarp, on which the spores are borne, not in chains but singly. 

 Numerous filaments connect the placenta with the wall of the cystocarp. The ac- 

 count given above of the frond applies merely to what one sees in sections of the ma- 

 ture branches. A section of the younger portions shows that there is originally an 

 axile filament, from which are given off other filaments which are nearly parallel to 

 the axis, and which afterwards turn outwards and form the cortical layer, the cells 

 of which they are composed becoming rounder and short. The genus differs from 

 Pterocladia merely in the position of the placenta, which in the last-named genus is 

 not central, but is attached laterally to the wall of the cystocarp. 



G. crinale, J. Ag., Epicr. (Gelidium comeum, var. crinale, auct. — 

 Acrocarpus lubricus and crinalis, Kiitz., Tab. Phyc, Vol. XVII, Pis. 32, 

 33.) 



Fronds crespitose, dark purple, setaceous, one to three inches high, 

 primary axis procumbent, from which arise erect, subterete, once or 

 twice pinnate branches, pinnse distichous, alternate, short, patent, acute, 

 often pinnatifid; tetraspores cruciate, borne in thickened subspathu- 

 late or pinnatifid apices. 



Forming tufts on mud-covered rocks and stones at low- water mark. 



Portland, Maine; Eed Hook, N. Y., Harvey; New Haven; Wood's 



Holl, IF. G. F. ; Maiden, Mass., Mr. Collins ; Europe; California. 



We have followed Agardh in separating the var. crinale from the polymorphic and 

 very widely diffused G. corneum. The typical form of the latter occurs in Florida and 

 on our west coast. G. crinale has been as yet recorded in but few localities, but it is 

 probably common along our whole coast. It is a homely, insignificant species, usually 

 not much thicker than a bristle, and forms small blackish patches on mud-covered 

 rocks. 



Suborder SOLIERIE^E. 



Fronds filiform or compressed ; tetraspores cruciate or zonate ; cys- 

 tocarps immersed in the frond, usually prominent at one side, spores 

 arranged in short filaments and arranged in tufts around a large central 

 carpogenic cell or a central placenta, which is attached to the wall of 

 cystocarp by filaments ; carpostome distinct. 



A small suborder, of which we have but a siugle species. It is characterized by 

 having the spores produced few in a row and attached either, as in Solieria and 

 Eucheuma, to a large central cell, or, as in Bhabdonia, to a large cellular placenta at 

 the center of the cystocarp. Whether Ehabdonia should be united in a suborder 

 with Solieria is perhaps doubtful. By some the genus is considered to be related to 

 the Bhodymeniew, and its affinity to Bhodophyllis and perhaps Eutlwra is not remote. 



RHABDONIA, Harv. 



(From pafldoc, a wand.) 

 Fronds deep red, cylindrical or nodose, branching, formed of an axis 

 composed of slender, branching, longitudinal filaments surrounded by 



