MARINE AQUARIA 



Polysiphonia violacea (Grev.) or Many-tubed Violet Weed, is a very 

 common form in tide-pools and below tidewater ; very variable in appear- 

 ance. The stem is thick and twiglike, the primary branches widely spread, 

 the secondary branches short and much divided, with feathery tufts at 

 their ends. The color is violet and brownish-red and the plant grows to 

 a height of 12 to i6 inches. May be found from Cape Cod south to 

 Florida. 



Polysephonia urceolata (Grev.) or Pitcher Weed, has very fine 

 silky filaments which grow in a 4 to 10 inch tuft of fine carmine-red color. 

 The thin stems are many-branched and the fronds assume a bushy appear- 

 ance composed of many slender filaments. Its name is derived from the 

 form of the seed vessels. Common on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. 



Polysephonia fastigiata (Grev.) or Black Tassel Weed, consists of a 

 dense tuft of many times divided filaments all of about the same length 

 so as to form a cockadelike tuft. It is parasitic on some of the Fuca. 

 The color is dark-brown or black. Common along the entire Middle 

 Atlantic coast. 



Polysephonia elongata (Grev.) or Lobster-horn Weed, consists of a 

 cluster of straight stalks about the thickness of heavy twine, joined at the 

 upper ends, with the branches irregularly forked. The winter form is 

 almost denuded of branches and from it the name is derived. The color 

 is light-brown, pink and red. Common on the Middle Atlantic coast 

 and grows in deeper water. 



Chondrus crispus (Lyn.) or Irish Moss, has 3 to 6 inch high tough, 

 leathery, curled and fan-shaped fronds on a flattened stem. From it a 

 tasteless gelatine is made. Grows on a rocky bottom on the entire Atlantic 

 coast, and is a deep brown or purple color in deep water and yellowish- 

 green in shallow water. 



Phyllophora membranifolia (Ag.) or Red Leafweed, consists of a bunch 

 of 12 to 20 irregular branched stems bearing wedge-shaped, fanlike y^ to 

 I inch long fronds, having forked and divided edges. The plant reaches 

 a height of 3 to 6 inches and grows on rocks and solid bottom in deep 

 water in the warmer section of the Atlantic coast. It is clear red in color, 

 sometimes violet in the older growths. 



Calithamnion americanum (Harv.) or Sea Shrub, is a dainty and beau- 

 tiful crimson or rose-red shrublike alga, of which the fronds are almost as 

 fine as a cobweb and the plant composed of innumerable delicate branches 

 from a central stalk attached by a disclike holdfast. Generally distributed 

 on the Atlantic coast south of Cape Cod. One of the handsomest com- 

 mon forms. Another frequent form of these fine algse is C. versicolor 

 (Ag.) the Many-colored Sea Shrub, distinguishable from the ten other 



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