MARINE ALG# OF BEAUFORT, N. C. 509 
five, in the older portions surrounded by one or more layers of smaller secondary cells and always inclosed 
by a layer of small, cortical cells; tetrasporangia numerous, borne in linear-lanceolate stichidia attenuate 
at the apices; cystocarps urn-shaped, often excentric, usually single, rarely 2 to 3 together, borne near 
the apices of short lateral branches; texture soft gelatinous-cartilaginous, flaccid; color light to dark 
purplish red; tetrasporangia, antheridia, and cystocarps borne on separate plants; sexual and asexual 
generations alternating regularly in the life cycle. 
New England to West Indies; Canary Islands; Mediterranean. 
Throughout harbor, and on Fort Macon and Shackleford jetties, Beaufort, N. C., 15 to 45 cm. below 
low-tide level, very abundant April, 1908, abundant May, 1907, few specimens on coral reef offshore, 
May, 1907. Collected during the winter and spring 1908-9, as follows: Fort Macon jetty, December, 
one small fragment; April, large, fruiting; May, small, battered; Bogue Beach, February, sterile; 
March, fruiting; April, large, fruiting. Few specimens Bogue Beach, July, 1903, and September, 1904; 
few small specimens attached to stem of Leptogorgia virgulata on Fort Macon jetty, August, 1904. 
One specimen about 1 cm. tall on shell in sound near inlet, Pawleys Island, near Georgetown, S. C., 
August, 1909. 
This species will not be mistaken for any other, being easily recognized by its dense covering of 
capillary, dichotomous filaments. In this region the species seems to appear in occasional specimens 
during the winter, reaches its maximal development in April, and almost or entirely disappears by 
June. Further study is needed to show how it survives from one spring to another, since the occasional 
specimens observed at other seasons have not been found with sufficient regularity to account for the 
maintenance of the species. 
Family 5. CERAMIACEZ (Bonnemaison) Negeli. 
Frond terete or flattened, often filamentous, richly laterally or dichotomously 
branched, usually erect, sometimes partially or almost entirely horizontal, rarely para- 
sitic, structure various, usually composed of naked or more or less corticated filaments; 
tetrasporangia occurring singly or in groups, in special branches or scattered over the 
frond, external or sunken in the cortical layer, usually triangularly, sometimes cruci- 
ately, divided; antheridia scattered over the thallus in various positions, bearing numer- 
ous crowded spermatangia; carpogonia usually closely associated with cells which, 
after fertilization, produce the auxiliary cells, forming definite procarps of various 
forms, external, scattered over the thallus or occurring in definite regions, often having 
two auxiliary cells associated with one carpogonium; cystocarps external or more or less 
embedded in the cortex, conspicuous, sometimes occurring in pairs, often having two 
gonimoblasts associated in a single cystocarp, naked or inclosed by special filamentous 
branchlets forming a more or less lax pericarp, gonimoblast arising from a basal pla- 
centa, sometimes compact, usually divided into several more or less conspicuous, usually 
rounded lobes, consisting of richly branched filaments forming carpospores from nearly 
every cell. 
Nearly 400 species, in all seas, especially in warm regions; two species reported as 
terrestrial. 
KEY TO GENERA. 
a. Thallus consisting of monosiphonous filaments entirely or almost entirely without cortex........ b. 
b. Thallus consisting of erect, laterally branched, filamentous branches arising from 
horizontal filaments; cystocarps terminal, bearing two gonimoblasts. .1. Spermothamnion (p. 510). 
bb. Thallus erect, consisting in part of long barrel-shaped or obovoid cells in moniliform 
filaments; cystocarps terminal, sometimes appearing lateral at the nodes.2. Griffithsia (p. 511). 
bbb. Thallus erect, main filaments often corticated below with descending rhizoidal fila- 
BHEnNtS Ae yepCArps WaCeLAl: SESSION fa Sof o.s'nys Saosin, vi pias¥ Selma nit bins<tate 3. Callithamnion (p. 511). 
