178 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



articulated ; antberidia, carpospores, and tetraspores borne in distinct 

 cavities (conceptacles), wbicb are eitber external or immersed in tbe 

 fronds 5 antberozoids spberical, attenuated at one end, or provided 

 ^itb two sbort projections borne on sbort filaments at tbe base of tbe 

 male conceptacles ; carpospores pyriform, terminating sbort filaments 

 ■wbicb surround a tuft of parapbj'ses at tbe base of tbe female concep- 

 tacles ', tetraspores zonate, occasionally binate. 



The present order includes all tlie calcareous Floridece except a comparatively few 

 species vrMch Ijelong to the Xemalieoe and Squamariece. Although classed by the 

 earlier writers with the coraJs rather than plants, the species of Corallinece are now 

 I)laced at the head of the Floridea', in consequence of their highly differentiated or- 

 gans of fructification. Our knowledge of the fructification of the Corallinece is de- 

 rived iirincipally from the Etudes Phycologiques of Thuret and Bornet and the Re- 

 cherches Anatomiquessurles Melob6si6esof Rosanoff. Thuret and Bornet describe three 

 different forms of conceptacle, containing, respectively, the antheridia, the carpospores, 

 and the tetraspores, the last only being mentioned by Harvey in the Nereis. The 

 tetraspores, which are much more common than the carpospores, are usually zonate, 

 although occasionally binate, and from the fact that they are borne in distinct con- 

 ceptacles, which is not the case with the other Floridece, it had erroneously been con- 

 sidered that the carpospores of the Corallinece were four-parted. The cystocarpic 

 spores, or carpospores, are always pyriform and undivided, and accompanied by para- 

 I)hyses. The number of trichogynes is large, and they project in a tuft at the orifice 

 of the conceptacle at the time of fertilization. The antherozoids differ from those of 

 the other Floridece in having appendages. 



The Corallinece abound in the tropics, and but few representatives are found in 

 northern seas. Our own coast is especially poor in species. The study of the devel- 

 opment of the i)lants of this order is diificult, owing to the calcareous deposit, and 

 soaking in acid injures the more delicate parts. The species are nearly all fragile 

 when dried, and it is not easy to preserve herbarium specimens in good condition. 

 The suborder may be divided into two tribes. The Corallineod proper have articu- 

 lated fronds, which rise vertically from the substratum, as is seen in our common 

 Coralline. The Melohesiece are not articulated, but form irregular horizontal crusts, 

 which sometimes rise in irregular erect branches. 



Fronds erect, filiform, articulated Corallina. 



Fronds borizontally exj^anded or vertical and inarticulate. 



Fronds borizontal Melobesia. 



Fronds rising in irregular protuberances from a borizontal base, 



lAthothamnion. 



COEALLINA, Lam.x. 



(From /copa/.Awv, a coral.) 



Monoecious or dioecious, fronds arising eitber from a calcareous disk 

 or from interlaced filaments, erect, terete or compressed, articulated, 

 brancbed, brancbes opposite, pinnate ; conceptacles terminal, naked or 

 occasionally witb two born-like appendages. 



A genus comprising about thirty to thirty-five species, mostly tropical, C. officinalis, C. 

 aciuamaia, and a few others extending high northward. The fronds of Corallina are 

 formed of a bundle of dichotomous parallel filaments, whose external branches grow 



