266 BOTANICAL GAZETTE | APRIL 
mention that it is so readily soluble that the bowl of water used 
for mounting some of the dark colored Daytona material was 
soon tinged a deep, somewhat violet-blue, suggesting a slight 
mixture of phycoerythrin with phycocyanin. 
The facts above presented, although they furnish definite 
information concerning the reproduction of this peculiar group, 
are not such as to make the true position of its members less 
obscure than they have been heretofore, since in general they 
substantiate the conclusions reached by Schmitz, based, as has ; 
been previously mentioned, on the examination of dead material. 
As this author has pointed out, their resemblance to forms like 
Ceramium in the gross structure of the thallus is wholly super- 
ficial, the cortications originating very differently in the two 
cases, and it seems quite certain that their near relatives are not 
to be sought among the higher Rhodophycee. It cannot be 
denied, however, that, so far as they are known, their reproduc- 
tive processes are more directly comparable with those of the 
Bangiacee than of any other group, the aplanospores of Ery- 
throtrichia being similar.to those of Compsopogon and similarly 
produced. That the paler “ microaplanospores” of the latter 
genus may correspond to the “ antherozoids”’ of the Bangiacee 
is not impossible, and although no indication of any sexual 
process was observed in the material examined, it may occur 
under other conditions or at other seasons of the year. Admit- 
ting, however, that these bodies are probably not sexual in 
nature, it may be remarked that the same might be said of 
bodies to which this function has been attributed among the 
Bangiacez ; so that in either case it would seem more in accord- 
ance with the ascertained facts to leave the family in question 
among the doubtful Bangiales, in the absence of any other group 
to which they seem as closely related. Yet, although this is the 
position actually assigned to them by Schmitz (JZ. ¢.), he finally 
remarks, ‘‘Am besten diirfte es sein die Compsopogonace® als 
eine etwas isoliert stehende Griippe vegetativ hoch entwickelter 
Formen den griinen Algen zuzuzahlen.”’ 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
