SUPPLEMENT. 131 



type. Branches usually secund, in some cases opposite or alternate, springing from the 

 middle of the articulation (or internode), or from near its base (not from the shoulder), 

 long and filiform, flexuous, furnished with several distant, secund, filiform, patent, 

 secondary branches, which are either simple, or furnished with a few similar, secund 

 ramuli. All the branches and ramuli of every grade spring from the middle of the 

 internodes of the branches of the preceding grade. The ramuli taper to their summit ; 

 the last six or eight internodes are very short, or rathei' are gradually developed whilst 

 the ramulus lengthens, and their nodes are beset, especially those of the younger ones, 

 with whorls of minute and very delicate byssoid ramelli, which seem to be connected 

 with the growing process ; but perhaps may also accompany fructification, as they do 

 in the nearly allied C. thyrsoideum. The articulations are cylindrical, 4-5 times as 

 long as broad, with a wide, hyaline margin and dissepiment, and are filled with rosy 

 endochrome. Substance membranaceous and delicate. The frond closely adheres to 

 paper in drying, 



I have compared Mr. Ashmead's specimens with an authentic one of Agardh's 

 Griffithsia tenuis from the Mediterranean, and find them to agree in every essential 

 character ; the only diiference that I can perceive being, that the American specimens 

 are larger and more luxuriant than the European. The fructification has not been 

 observed either in America or Europe, and I may therefore be accused of indiscretion 

 in removing this species from Griffithsia to the present genus. I do so because its 

 afiinity with C. thyrsoideum of Ceylon and Australia is so great that they cannot be 

 placed in separate genera ; and the fruit of the latter is known. I only question 

 whether I ought not to go a step further, and unite C. thyrsoideum to C. tenue as a 

 mere variety. Both are remarkable for the manner in which the branches and ramuli 

 are inserted ; and may be known by this character alone from all allied species. But 

 there is no American species to which the present is nearly allied. 



Page 247, under Fikea califoruica, add to the specific diagnosis, 

 (Tab. XLIX. B.) 



And insert the following reference to the figure, 



Plate XLIX. B. Fig. 1. Pikea califomica, a robust specimen ; and^^. 2, a more 

 slender and smaller individual ; both of the natural size. Fig. 3. Longitudinal 

 section of the frond, showing the central, articulated axial filament, and the two strata 

 of cells. Fig. 4, a transverse section of the frond ; these two figures equally magnified. 



