THE CEYLON SF^ECIES OF CAULERPA. 



I.'?7 



19— CAULERPA LONGISTIPITATA (Weber v. Bosse). 



Syn. C. lentiUifera (J. G. Agardh) Weber v. Bosse, x&Y.lomjistipitata Weber v. Bosse in 

 Th. Reinbold's Marine Algye in Flora of Koii Chang by JoHS. Schmidt, Part IV., p. 106. 



The horizontal axis extended, with rather few vertical axes ( = assimilators) ; these are simple, 

 only exceptionally branched, with the branchlets or pinnules generally opposite in two rows, but sometimes 

 also projecting in all directions. The branchlets at the top provided with a little ball-shaped vesicle 

 of about 1-2 mm. in diameter, bounded by a remarkable constriction. The basal part of the same length 

 or shorter than the vesicle. The diameter of the vertical axis commonly not exceeding twice that of the 

 branchlets. 



I have observed this Caulerpa in the more sheltered places of the littoral zone at the islands at 

 Paumben Pass, especially on stones, with its long creeping rhizomes adhering thereto or entangled in 

 other algae ; sometimes it also occurred drifting and entangled in algae which had broken loose. 



Fig. 45. — C. longistipitata (w. v- b.). h shows an assimilator with the branchlets in many rows . (1 x 1). 

 This Caulerpa, which I have placed as a species of its own, was first described by Weber v. Bosse 

 as a variety of C. lentiUifera. in Major Th. Reinbold's paper on the algae from Koh Chang in the Gulf 

 of Siam collected by Dr. JoHS. Schmidt. I have had an opportunity of examining these type specimens 

 and I can assert their conformity to the Ceylon specimens. That Weber v. Bosse, with such limited 

 material, was presumably unwilling to create a new species among the Caulerpas is comprehensible when 

 one thinks of the great multiformity of these organisms, and the more so as this author is inclined to 

 form wide-embracing species (so wide-embracing as far as lentiUifera is concerned, that even a form 

 so different as C. Kilneri is included). But my study of this plant from a somewhat richer material from 

 Paumben showed that it is in the main constant, and it seems to me to be rather well characterized and 

 distinct from C. lentiUifera, with which it is most closely allied. 



C. longistipitata differs from C. lentiUifera, as Weber v. Bosse points out, in the small number 

 of the rows of pinnules (fig. 45). This may vary a Uttle, however, but the predominant number of verticai 



49-()() 



