CONTRIBUTION FROM THE CRYPTOGAMIC LABORA- 
TORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. XLIII. 
NOTE ON THE STRUCTURE AND REPRODUCTION OF 
COMPSOPOGON.* 
ROLAND THAXTER. 
(WITH PLATE XX!) 
THE genus Compsopogon Mont., which is the sole representa- 
tive of the Compsopogonacee, includes a few described species 
of filamentous algz inhabiting the warmer regions of the earth, . 
which are distinguished in general by their characteristic bluish 
or violet-green color, recalling that of some of the Myxophycee ; 
while they are structurally peculiar from the fact that their 
filaments consist of an axial row of very large cells surrounded 
by one or more layers of corticating cells, the resultant structure 
closely resembling that of Ceramium among the Floridez, though 
originating in a very different fashion. 
The reproduction of these plants, although it has been very 
accurately interpreted by Schmitz (Engler & Prantl, Die nat. 
Pflanzenf., Algz, p. 318) from an examination of dead material, 
has never so far as I am aware been directly observed, and since 
during a recent botanizing expedition in Florida I had an oppor- 
tunity to study an abundance of fresh material, a special effort 
was made to obtain definite information on this point. 
This alga was first met with at Cocoanut Grove in Novem- 
ber 1897 along the shores of Biscayne Bay, growing most 
abundantly beside the road to Miami just north of the village, 
in ditches fed by bubbling springs which doubtless originating 
in the Everglades and traversing the narrow intervening strip of 
coral rock formation emerge in all directions along the bay and 
even mingle with the salt water at some distance from the shore. 
The substance of this Note was read at the New Haven meeting of the Society for 
Plant Morphology and Physiology, December 27, 1899. 
J 259 
