566 TRANSACTIONS AND PKOCEEDINGS OF THE 



Only in the case of the typical species of the genus 

 GloioiJeltis have I been unable to attain my object. 



Turner, and after him Kiitzing, figure a specimen of 

 this species, G. tenao:, with outward projecting cystocarps. 

 Were these true cystocarps or paraspore fruits ? This 

 question can only be answered by an examination of 

 authentic fruiting material. But it proved very diflScult 

 to obtain accurately determined material of this species. 

 Almost all the large herbaria I have seen contain material 

 of G. UnobX, but this I found to be in many cases wrongly 

 named. It has occurred in this case, as so frequently 

 happens with Algte from extra-European seas, that material 

 arriving from abroad is labelled with the best known 

 specific name in the genus, and then placed in the 

 Herbarium with this determination. "Within the genus 

 Gloiopeltis, the best known name is G. teiwM, and this name 

 therefore occurs in many collections, and one sees, not un- 

 frequently, specimens so named in fruit. But I have 

 come across very few true specimens of G. tamx, and, 

 although I sought them carefully, have never found 

 specimens with cystocarps,^ 



Sterile specimens of G. Uiiax, nevertheless, show an 

 anatomical structure quite analogous to that of the above 

 described species of Gloiopeltis. It is, however, worthy of 

 remark that the wall-forming filaments which arise in 

 pairs from the cells of the central axis of this species (in 

 this case always stretched straight, not curving hither and 

 thither as often occurs in G. furcata) do not run straight 

 across the inner space to the wall, but bend upwards in 

 long ascending curves, giving off numerous branchlets to 

 the wall, and only subsequently allowing their terminal 



slight to enable me to say how far its variability in anatomical structure 

 can go. But I must call attention to the fact that the above-mentioned 

 small difference in the structure of the thaUus is the only distinction I 

 can find between G. dura and G. cap'dlaris Perhaps the comparative 

 examination of a larger bulk of material will lead to the discovery of 

 important specific differences between the Japanese G. capillaris, which 

 is distributed according to Suringar (Illustr., p. 12) over the southern 

 part of Japan, and G. dura from the North Pacific, which occurs on 

 the coasts of Kamtschatka and the neighbouring Island of Behring. 

 Ruprecht (Alg. Ochot., p. 118) calls attention to "the firm tenacity 

 and elastic consistency '" as primarily characteristic of the species. 



^ Professor Suringar writes to me (in January 1892) that he does not 

 possess cystocarps of G. tenax. 



