7G THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. [Vol. xxxii. n<j. 376. 



met with the stichidia of an intermediate character. The length 

 of the articuli was also greatly variable, sometimes as long v as 

 6—8 times of diameter as Harvey noted, but frequently as short 

 as only 1% times. In many specimens which have the articuli 

 of the main filaments hardly twice as long as diameter, I have 

 seen evidently unilateral disposition of the tetrasporangia. The 

 distinction between the two species is not so clear as it appears. 



I have referred to this species those specimens which have 

 the articuli shorter than W2 times of diameter in any part of 

 frond and which have the tetrasporangia spirally disposed in a 

 stichidium. As far as our specimens show, the present species 

 appear to be located in the warmer seas while P. £brata Harv., 

 in the colder. In an intermediate region a linking form between 

 both species may be met with. I am strongly tempted to believe 

 that the one species should be taken as a form of the other. 



Harvey described the plant from Key West, Florida, under 

 P. breviarticulata. He also described P. Gorgoniae from the 

 same locality. The latter species is remarked to be solitary, 

 but "rarely somewhat tufted", and the articuli in the minor 

 branches twice as long as diameter. In Herb. Trinity College, 

 Dublin, there is a specimen collected by Charles Wright in 

 Loochoo and determined by Harvey as P. Gorgoniae. On the 

 specimen sheet there is a sketch b} f Harvey showing a cj^tocarp 

 and tetragonal cross section of a filament. The cystocarp is 

 shown as orange-shaped and short-pedicelled. The Japanese 

 specimens which I now identify with P. ferulacea Suhr have 

 the cystocarps frequently drange-shaped. The Loochoo specimen 

 in Dublin has some of them orange-shaped as observed by 

 Hervey, but no less number of globular or globose-ovate ones 

 are found on it. 



As P. Gorgoniae is described to grow solitary or rarely 

 somewhat tufted, the reliable distinction between P. Gorgoniae 

 Harv. and P. ferulacea Suhr will be simply in the length of 

 articuli of the minor branches. I dare not say the identity of 

 both species. But at least the Loochoo specimen under P. 

 Gorgoniae appears to me to be comparable with the present 

 species. 



