On tue PITHOPHORACEA. . 7 
the system of ramification in Pithophoracew is upon the whole slightly 
developed, when compared with what it is in most Cladophoree — in 
no species branches occur of a higher degree than the 3:rd — and that the 
species do form an unbroken series as to the ramification of the cauloid, 
beginning with the species where the system of ramification possesses 
branches only of the l:st degree, those being also single; continued by 
species where branches exist sometimes of only one degree, sometimes 
of two, and where the branches are partly single and partly opposite; 
and completed by the species where the system of ramification contains 
branches of three degrees, of which those belonging to the l:st are 
verticillated, and those of the 2:d and 3:rd single or opposite. What 
has now been said on the ramification of the cauloid has its strict and 
full bearing only on the fertile specimens, i. e. those that carry spores. 
- In the sterile specimens, i. e. those that do not carry spores, the system 
of ramication is generally somewhate more developed; thus, that the 
sterile specimens, except of P. swmatrana (v. Mart.) nob. and P. Roett- 
leri (Roth) nob. most frequently have branches of one degree more 
than the fertile ones, and that the branches in the sterile specimens 
occur oftener two and two opposite to each other than in the fertile ones. 
Even in P. Roettleri (Roth) nob. the sterile specimens show a tendency 
to richer ramification, having sometimes the branches of the 1:st degree 
not only three but even four in a whorl. Branches of a higher degree 
than the 3:rd I have not observed, not even in sterile specimens. 
As to the place of the branches on the cells that support them, 
it has already been mentioned, that they are, as a rule, attached a short 
space below the top of their supporting cells. I may add here, that 
the supporting cells are regularly either common chlorophylliferous 
vegetative cells, or spores; only exceptionally they are subsporal cells — 
i. e. cells placed immediately under the spores and being sister cells 
of them — wanting chlorophyll. Branches, that have the position now 
_ mentioned, ought to be regarded as normal. But besides these, bran- 
ches are sometimes found which deserve, by their more accidental occur- 
rence, the epithet accessorial. These are recognized by proceeding not 
from the top but from another part, commonly the lower, of their sup- 
porting cells (pl. 1, fig. 4 ac; pl. 2, fig. 9 ac; pl. 4, fig. 7 ac; pl. 5, fig. 
2 ac); compare what is said on ramification in the paragraph »Ger- 
mination and -Increase.» 
‘That the branches on each individual supporting cell are most 
frequently found single, but often also two and two opposite or almost 
