RED ALG^. 145 



branches, often with a very decided and sometimes 

 even brilliant pink, color, though the more common 

 color is purple brown. It is common in Long 

 Island Sound on Zostera, and Dr. Farlow gives the 

 popular name for it there as "Doughballs." 



POLYSIPHONIA VAEIEGATA,* Ag. 



This plant has something the same habit as P. 

 Olneyi, only that it is larger and more robust, grow- 

 ing often to the height of six to ten inches. Start- 

 ing at the base with a filament no thicker than a 

 bristle, a half an inch up, it divides into two or more 

 widely spreading branches. These again divide in 

 the same way into long unclothed branchlets. 

 Within an inch of the extremity of the frond, 

 sometimes half way back, all the branches rapidly 

 divide, into long, silky filaments, of a light brown 

 color. The normal appearance of the plant on 

 paper, then, is that of a quarter or third seg- 

 ment of a wheel, with the bare spokes radiating to 

 a rim an inch or so wide, sometimes half the 

 width of the frond, which is made up of these 

 brown pencils of fine capillary filaments. It is quite 

 unmistakable when once seen. It grows parasitical 

 on Zostera. It is said to be a winter plant in 



* Variegata = Variegated or parti-colored. 



