S18 RHODOMELACEAE. 



Caloglossa Leprieurii (Mont.) J. Ag. creeps on rocks, wooden piles, man- 

 grove roots, and other solid objects between the tide-lines, mostly near the 

 high-water mark (Phyc. Bor.-Am. S038). It has a thin, purple, membranous, 

 costate, diehotomous, rather regularly constricted thallus that commonly reaches 

 a length of 1 or 2 inches, with segments mostly 4-1 line in maximum width. 

 The segments of the terminal forkings, which are commonly unequal at first, 

 are lanceolate or elliptic and are acuminate. The segments in general are 

 constricted at the base, either gradually or abruptly. A tuft of root-hairs is 

 usually to be found on the ventral surface at each forking of the costa. 

 Although typically an inhabitant of salt or brackish water, this species is 

 found also in mountain streams in Porto Rico at an elevation of 1200 or 

 1500 feet. 



Taenioma perpusiUum (J. Ag.) J. Ag. has been reported from Bermuda (Phyc. 

 Bor.-Am. 1935), but the writer has seen no Bermuda specimen. The one copy of 

 Phyc. Bor.-Am. 1935 that has been examined shows a small Rhodomelaceous plant 

 bearing some slight resemblance to the Taenioma. 



Family RHODOMELACEAE. 



Laurencia obtusa (Huds.) Lamour. The species of Laiirencia as cur- 

 rently recognized appear to intergrade. Although many of the alleged species 

 are different enough in their typical conditions, individual specimens are 

 often difficult to place. Of the six Bermudian species or forms, L. ohtusa is 

 perhaps the commonest, growing in tide-pools or in shallow water on rocks 

 and reefs. It forms conic, subpyramidal, or subglobose tufts, mostly 2-7 

 inches high, and when living is often greenish with pink tips. Pressed speci- 

 mens sometimes have the appearance of being 3-6 times irregularly pinnate, 

 but the branches and branchlets are in various planes and for the most part 

 alternate, though at times apparently opposite or verticillate. The plants 

 have well-developed main axes that are mostly ^-i a line in diameter. (Phyc. 

 Bor.-Am. S092.) 



Laurencia intricata Lamour. (L. implicata J. Ag.) is perhaps a variety 

 of the foregoing, differing chiefly in the lax, weak intertangled habit of 

 growth and the lack of clearly defined leading axes. It occurs unattached or 

 loosely attached to other algae or to rocks, as at Gibbet Island and Tobacco 

 Bay. 



Laurencia microcladia Kiitz. (L. glomeraia Suhr, not L. glomerata Kiitz.) 

 also is possibly a variety of L. ohtusa but the two occur near each other in 

 Bermuda and maintain a considerable degree of distinctness. L. microcladia 

 is distinguished by the narrowly virgate habit of the plant as a whole or of 

 its principal branches and by its minute, numerous, often clustered clavate or 

 clavate-turbinate ultimate ramuli. It occurs on rocks between the tide-lines 

 at Achilles Bay, at Spanish Rock, and at Hungry Bay and other points along 

 the South Shore (Phyc. Bor.-Am. 1888, as L. ohiiisa, var. gelatinosa). It is 

 a small plant, 1-3 inches high. 



Laurencia Poitei (Lamour.) M. A. Howe (Fucus Poitei Lamour. Diss. 63. 

 pi. 31. f. S, S. 1805; Laurencia Chauvini Bory, Diet. Class. Hist. Nat. 9: 239. 



