258 SEA MOSSES. 



last species. Indeed, you will find plants, which, 

 though easily distinguished from the extreme forms 

 of either species, are very difficult to locate, and 

 you will often find it no easy matter to determine 

 to which species you will refer them. 



But, in a general way, it may be said that this 

 species is coarser than the last. Its main branches 

 are thicker, and its secondary and further ramifica- 

 tions shorter. There are also particular distinguishing 

 marks. The ramuli of this species spring from just 

 below the top of the joint ; they divide by opposite 

 branching; they are much stouter and shorter than 

 the ramuli of the other species, and the cells of 

 these ramuli are much shorter, being not more than 

 twice as long as wide. 



The color, also, of this species is considerably 

 darker than in C. A?nericanu7n. The plant grows to 

 the height of three or four inches, is four or five 

 times alternately decompounded, the branches remote 

 towards the base, crowded at the top. It is a spring 

 plant, growing in deep water, the same as C. Amer- 

 icanum, and has nearly the same geographical range, 

 with a tendency to favor the northern localities. 



Mr. Collins finds it at Revere, from March to 

 May, not very common. Mrs. Bray reports it very 

 common at Magnolia, during the same months. Mrs. 



