498 ' BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Var. gemmifera (Harvey) J. Agardh. PI. CVI, fig. 2. 



Laurencia gemmifera, Harvey, 1853, p. 73. pi- 18 B. 

 Laurencia tuber culosa var. gemmtjera, J. Agardh, 1876, p. 657. 

 Laurencia tuberculosa var. gemmifera, De Toni, 1903, P- 802. 

 P. B.-A. No. 141. 



Frond terete, branching profuse, alternate, irregular, decompound, forming more or less intricate 

 tufts, branches spreading, bearing numerous short, simple, blunt, tubercular branchlets on all sides, longer 

 and shorter branches intermingled without order; texture cartilaginous and brittle; color light red or 

 yellowish, sometimes greenish. 



Florida and West Indies. 



Abundant on Bogue Beach and floating in harbor, Beaufort, N. C., August to October, 1905 (few 

 plants tetrasporic), few small masses unattached on bottom near "Green Rock" in Newport River, 

 August, 1906, occasional on Bogue Beach, September, 1906, one large plant (male) on Shackleford jetty 

 about 30 cm. below low water, August, 1907. 



The specimens from this locality do not resemble authentic specimens of L. tuberculosa, but closely 

 resemble a specimen from Key West labeled " L. gemmifera" by Harvey. In herbaria the variety 

 passes over in to the species, but in this region the plants are quite uniform, with little variation, and 

 are always light to dark green. They will not be mistaken for any other species occurring at Beaufort, 

 being easily distinguished by the richly and irregularly branched, intricate tufts df stiff, brittle, carti- 

 laginous, dull green fronds bearing numerous short, blunt, tubercular branchlets on all sides. 



This is the northern known limit of the species and of the genus. 



Besides the above species, there were collected on Bogue Beach in August, 1906, 

 several battered specimens evidently belonging to another species of Laurencia. These 

 somewhat resemble a battered specimen of L. pinnatifida (Gmel.) Lamour., but are 

 indeterminable. 



Genus 2. Chondria (Agardh) Harvey. 



Chondria, Agardh, 1817, p. XVIII. 

 Chondria, Harvey, 1853, p. 19. 

 Chondriopsis, Farlow, 1883, p. 165. 



Frond erect, terete or somewhat flattened, richly branched, branches arising radi- 

 ally or pinnately, usually alternately, virgate, bearing branchlets which are markedly 

 constricted at their bases; structure cellular, with a single circle of five loose pericentral 

 cells surrounded by several layers of smaller cells within the surface and one or more 

 layers of small cortical cells, growing points prolonged or sunk in slight apical depres- 

 sions, apical cell transversely divided, trichoblasts somewhat persistent, but finally 

 evanescent; tetrasporangia usually numerous, occurring without conspicuous order 

 among the subcortical cells toward the middle or upper parts of spindle-shaped ultimate 

 branchlets, formed from segments of the pericentral cells, triangularly divided; an- 

 theridia irregularly oval, sometimes crumpled plates attached by short stalks to tricho- 

 blasts on ultimate branchlets, bordered by one or more rows of sterile cells (fig. 39) ; 

 cystcarps numerous, sessile on the ultimate branchlets, prominent, ovate, pericarp 

 thick, opening by an apical pore, gonimoblast composed of branched filaments radi- 

 ating from a basal placenta, bearing single large, elongated, pear-shaped carpospores 

 in their terminal segments; tetrasporangia, antheridia, and cystocarps borne on separate 

 plants 



About 25 species, often separated by variable characters and exceedingly difficult 

 to determine, in warm and temperate seas. 



