51 



about 2.5 mm. in diameter, with longer and branch-like or shorter 

 and wart-like processes. The ends are obtuse or, not seldom, some- 

 what spherically thickened. Pl. 6, flg. 1. This form also becomes 

 more or less hollow, caused by animals, especially boring muscles. 

 Pl. 6, fig. 2 represents the upper part of a specimen, by which 

 most of the branches are denudated, and rather more than those 

 of the lovver part of the plant. Fig. 3 on the same plate shows 

 the lower and much denudated portion of a specimen most nearly 

 related to this form, but in the upper and not denudated part not 

 forming distinct bundles. It is hollow, and the cavity occupied 

 by Mytilus, Perten and other animals. 



The form that I have named f. curvirostra so nearly accords 

 in habit with the plant figured by Kli tz ing 1. c., that I have 

 referred to it. It is L. ramulosum Phil., and Kut z ing got the 

 specimen from Philipp i himself. Cp. 1. c. p. 35. I, however, 

 am not sure whether my form in fact may be identic with that, 

 as the apparently numerous conceptacles of sporangia, scattered 

 or partly crowded over the whole plant in Kiitzing's figure, do 

 not agree with my specimens, being larger and apparently more 

 superficial. Hauck 1. c. certainly refers this plant to his L. fas- 

 ciculatum, and it appears rather probable that they are identic and 

 the conceptacles only delineated too large in Kiitzing's figure. 

 However, I do not adopt that name for the form in question, until 

 an authentic specimen has been examined, as besides more spedes 

 probably have been recorded under the same name. This form 

 is, most commonly, at first fastened to smaller stones, but it soon 

 loosens itself and lies free on the bottom, then forming roundish 

 balls about 4 — 5 cm. in diameter. It seldom encompasses stones. 

 The lower branches are more or less anastomosing, the upper 

 ones rather spreading and most often curved, at the base about 

 2 mm. thick, elongated conical and acute in typically developed 

 specimens. In others, however, the branches are often conically 

 cylindrical and obtuse, seldom nearly cylindrical, and in the upper 

 part occasionally bearing some wart-like process. Such specimens 

 form transitions to f. flexuosa, and in part nearly related especially 

 to Adriatic specimens of the last named form, which frequently 



