56 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



in diameter, clothed with secondary branches, which are divaricately 

 divided and furnished with secund ultimate branches; cells several 

 times longer than broad. 



In brackish ditches. Summer. 



Wood's Holl; Maiden, Mass. 



To the present species niay be referred the greater part of the New England speci- 

 mens of brackish w ater referred to C. fracta. It is at first tufted, but soon rises to the 

 top of shallow ditches and coves, and forms an intricately interwoven mass. It is 

 distinguished from C. fracla by the greater size of the main branches and the fact tbat 

 the diameter of the secondary branches is always much less than that of the main 

 branches, whereas in the true C. fracta the branches gradually dimmish in size. In 

 some specimens the branches are clothed at intervals with very short fasciculated 

 ramuli. The species when in its tufted condition resembles some of the forms of C. 

 gracilis. It also approaches the C. fracta of the Algae Danmonienses, said by Harvey 

 to be rather C. flavescens. 



0. fracta, (Fl. Dan.) Kiitz. 



" Tufts irregular, entangled, often detached, and then forming floating 

 strata, dull green ; filaments rather rigid, distantly branched, the lesser 

 branches somewhat dichotomous, spreading, with very wide axils; the 

 rainuli few, alternate or secund; articulations 3-6 times as long as 

 broad, at first cylindrical, then elliptical, with contracted nodes." (Har- 

 vey, Nereis Am. Bor., Part III, p. 83.) 



Salt-water ditches and ponds. 



West Point, Prof. Bailey; Beesley's Point, Ashmead; New York, 



Walters ; Baltimore, Md. v 



♦ 



We have quoted from the Nereis the description given by Harvey. It is doubtful 

 whether under the name C. fracla he referred to the species of that name as recognized 

 by Scandinavian botanists. The only marine locality of this species which we have 

 examined is in the vicinity of the Marine Hospital, Baltimore. As we understand the 

 species, it is much finer than C. expansa, the cells being from .02-8 mm in diameter, 

 those of the main branches tapering gradually into those of the secondary branches, 

 while in the last-named species the transition is sudden. The branches are less 

 numerous and more irregular in their mode of branching in C. fracta than in C. ex- 

 pansa. 



0. magdalenje, Harv., Phyc. Brit., PI. 335 a. 



Filaments one to three inches long, decumbent, entangled, coarse, 

 blackish green; branches given off at obtuse angles, flexuous, with 

 very few curved, irregularly-placed branchlets; cells .04-8 mm in diam- 

 ter, about 2-4 times as long as broad. 



Napatree Point, E. I., Prof. Eaton. 



This rather unsightly and insignificant species is recognized by its procumbent 

 habit and dingy green color, and by having but few branches, which are arranged 

 without any definite order, and are given off at very obtuse angles from the main fila- 

 ments. It may be dwibted whether the species is not a reduced form of some other. 



