130 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. 



One of the commonest and most beautiful of the genus south of Cape Cod, but only 

 known in one locality north of the Cape. It is often brought up on fishermen's nets, 

 and, as a rule, inhabits deeper water than most of the genus. It often attains the 

 height of four or five inches, and is broadly pyramidal in outline. The main branches 

 are rather stout and distinctly corticated, but the ultimate ramifications are very soft 

 and flaccid. With us seirosporic specimens are very common, making the species 

 easily distinguishable, but no form of tetraspore or bispore has been observed on Ameri- 

 can specimens. According to Bornet, tetraspores, bispores, and seirospores sometimes 

 occur on the same individual. From a comparison of our plant with authentic Eu- 

 ropean specimens there can be no doubt of the specific identity of the two. Accept- 

 ing the account of the cystocarps given by Bornet, it is extremely doubtful whether 

 the species should be kept in the present genus, and perhaps the genus Seirospora 

 should be restored, not, however, as originally adopted by Harvey. 



SPECIES INQUIREND2E. 



0. tenue, Harv., Ner. Am. Bor., Part III, p. 130. (Griffithsia tenuis, 

 Ag.) 



u Filaments tufted, ultra-capillary, irregularly much branched, diffuse, 

 flexuous, the branches and their divisions very generally secund, spring- 

 ing from the middle of the internodes ; ramuli few and distant, patent, 

 filiform, beset toward the attenuated apices with whorls of minute bys- 

 soid fibers; articulations cylindrical, those of the branches 4-6 times, 

 those of the ramuli 3-4 times as long as broad, and gradually shorter 

 towards the extremities." 



Beesley's Point, N. J., Harvey. 



Two specimens which can probably be referred to the present species have been re- 

 ceived from Nantucket, one presented by Mrs. Lusk, the other by Mr. Collins. In the 

 absence of fruit the genus cannot be determined. Nsegeli, in Beitrage zur Morphologie 

 und Systematik der Ceramiceae, says that the tetraspores are terminal on a single-celled 

 pedicel. According to Harvey, the species is distinguished by the branches, which are 

 all given off from the middle of the internodes of the branches of the preceding grade. 

 Nffigeli says that this species has normal branches like those of Griffithsia iariata, and 

 he regards those given off from the internodes as adventive branches. 



C. Tocwottoniensis, Harv. MSS., fide Bailey. 

 Providence, Bailey ; Warwick, Hunt. 



As far as we know, this species, mentioned by S. T. Olney in his List of Rhode Island 

 Plants, fortunately for printers and the throats of American algologists, has never been 

 described. 



GELFFITHSIA, Ag. 



(Named in honor of Mrs. Gi'iffiths, of Torquay.) 



Fronds filiform, monosiphonous, without cortications, dichotomously 

 branching, branches of two kinds, the vegetative of indeterminate, the 

 fructiferous of determinate growth ; antheridia sessile and covering the 

 upper surface of the terminal cells in tufted whorls at the nodes, or in 

 densely whorled pyramidal tufts on involucrate branches ; tetraspores 



