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GONIMOPHYLLUM BUFFHAMI: A NEW MARINE ALGA. 



By E. A. L. Batters, B.A., LL.B., F.L.S. 



(Plate 819.) 



The curious alga which forms the subject of the present paper 

 was placed in my hands by my friend Mr. T. H. Buffham, whose 

 interesting notes on the reproductive organs of the marine algffl 

 have done much to revive in this country an interest in the study 

 of algology. It therefore gives me especial pleasure to be able to 

 associate his name with an alga belonging to the Floridea — a 

 group to which he has devoted much attention. 



On October 5th, 1891, Mr. Buffhani received from one of his 

 correspondents, Mr. J. T. Neeve, of Deal, a specimen of Nitophyllum 

 laceratum Grev. with tetraspores, the curious feature of which was 

 the presence on various portions of the frond of groups of minute 

 leaflets. This fact had been noticed by Mr. Neeve, who wrote, 

 " N. laceratum has a pale parasite on, besides the cystocarps (sic), 

 in the leaflets." Mr. Buffham's attention having been arrested by 

 this mention of "cystocarps," while the plant was, as has already 

 been mentioned, a tetrasporic one of the usual form, he made a very 

 careful examination of the various clusters of leaflets, with the 

 result that he discovered some of them bore cystocarps, others 

 antheridia or tetraspores, the different reproductive organs being 

 confined to separate groups of leaflets, no two* of them occurring 

 in the same. This discovery raised more than a suspicion in Mr. 

 Buffham's mind that these leaflets were not part of the XitophyUum, 

 but were in reality a parasitic alga. In this belief, having obtained 

 a fresh supply of material from Mr. Neeve, he sent specimens to 

 Dr. Bornet and Prof. Schmitz, the latter of whom agreed with him in 

 considering the leaflets those of a parasite, pointing out as additional 

 evidence of this that they arose from a basal cushion composed in 

 part of jointed filaments. Mr. Buff ham, being now quite satisfied 

 that he had detected a new alga, handed to me some beautiful 

 preparations of the plant, with the request that I would name and 

 describe it, as Dr. Schmitz, to whom he had at first applied, had 

 not leisure to do so at present. 



That these groups of leaflets are those of a parasitic alga closely 

 related to, though generically distinct from, Nitophyllum, and are 

 not part of the Nitophyllum itself, is, I think, sufficiently proved by 

 the fact that they occur indifferently on any part of the frond, that 

 the different groups found on one and the same specimen of A ito- 

 phyllum bear either antheridia, cystocarps, or tetraspores, quite 

 irrespective of the organs borne by the host plant (which may lie 

 either barren, tetrasporic, or antheridici), and, above all, by the 

 endophytic filaments always present in the basal cushion trom 



* In one instance a small male leaflet was observed growing out of a 

 cystocarpic one. _ 



t This parasite has not been observed on cystocarpic specimens of N. 

 laceratum. 



Journal of Botany.— Vol. 30. [March, 1892.] * 



