288 report of commissioner of fish and fisheries. 



Laurenciace^. 



42. Champia {Lomentaria, Aa.) parvida, Harv. Very common on 



eel-grass and the larger algae tliroughout Long Island Sound. 

 When dredged in fine to ten fathoms it is flatter and more 

 gelatinous than in shoaler water. I have a specimen from 

 Watch Hill, collected by Professor Eaton, which seems to me 

 to be the same as Harvey's Key West species, G. salicornioides, 

 and I have numerous specimens connecting the two species, 

 which are probably forms of the same. 



GORALLINACEJE. 



43. Corallina officinalis^ L. Common. Wood's Hole, Gay Head. The 



classification of this order is indeed wretched, when the fruits 

 characteristic of three different genera are all found on a 

 single specimen, as is the case with one from G-ay Head. 



44. Melohesia memhranaeea^ Lam. Common along the coast on zos- 

 tera. 



45. M.farinosa, Lam. on Sargassum vulgare. Cuba, (C. Wright.) 



46. M. pustulata^ Lam. On Fuci and Chondrus. Cape Ann, Gay 



Head, Wood's Hole, Weepecket. 

 Sph^rococcoide^. 



47. Qrinnellia Americana^ Harv. On sheltered piers, below low- water 



mark, and on stones and sponges as low as six fathoms. 

 Wood's Hole, Orient, Greenport, Watch Hill, (Professor Eaton,) 

 Edgartown, Buzzard's Bay. Washed ashore at Gay Head and 

 ^ Nantucket. This, perhaps the most beautiful rhodosperm 

 south of Cape Cod, is a very rapid grower, two or three crops 

 being produced during the summer in favorable localities. It 

 is supposed to require warm water for its perfection, but the 

 ladies of Edgartown collect this plant in midwinter, as it is 

 only at that time that it grows high up on the piers. I am 

 informed by Miss Fisher that, after high tides in winter, the 

 flats in the vicinity of Edgartown are covered with this sea- 

 weed. Harvey described the harbor of Greenport as carpeted 

 with Grinnellia. In August, 1870, I dredged that harbor in 

 every direction, but found no trace of it, though there were a 

 few specimens on the north beach. It is possible that the nu- 

 merous fish-oil factories may have driven it away. I have 

 never seen but one specimen of Grinnellia purporting to have 

 been found north of Cape Cod ; that was a water-worn frag- 

 ment, supposed to have been collected at Pigeon Cove, Cape 

 Ann. But, as the lady who showed me the specimen was not 

 sure of the locality, and had other specimens from Long Island 

 Sound, I think there must have been some mistake. Tlie 

 southernmost locality from which 1 have received specimens is 

 Norfolk, Virginia. 



