THE CEYLON SPECIES OF CAULERPA. 



Ill 



consequently a kind of pronounced periodicity in development. The same seems to me to be clear from 



Weber v. Bossb's drawings, {loc. cit., PI. XXIII., fig. 2, 5, 7). 



This unUmited increase in length appears to be more characteristic of /. inter- 

 media than of /. denticulata (Weber v. Bosse, loc. cit. PI. XXIII.), which, even if not 

 always, has yet frequently shorter leaves which are not so strongly proliferate. 



Although in general the internal construction of the Caulerpas is not dealt with 

 in this paper, I cannot refrain from touching on the arrangement of the protoplasm 

 strings and of the chloroplasts , so characteristic of this species, as shown in fig. 3. The 

 same has already been pointed out by Janse ("Die Beweg. d. Protopl. v. C. prol." p. 190) 

 in connection with the description of the same phenomenon in Caulerpa prolifera. 

 Numerous main veins run through the centre of the leaf, and from them fan-shaped 

 veinlets run into the lobes, but curve back again toward the main veins, and hence arises 

 the characteristic structure which is shown in fig. 3. It is specially chacteristic of 

 C. scalpelliformis. 



Geographical distribution. — India : Paumben ! (/. intermedia and /. denticulata) , 

 Tuticorin (Ferguson, No. 411 ) ; the Pearl banks in the Gulf of Mannar (Dr. Herd man 

 in E. S. Barton's, " List of Marine Algae collected at Ceylon in 1902.") From the Red 

 C. scaipelliiormis Sea to the Indian Ocean (Mauritius — AustraUa — Tasmania) ; Atlantic (Angola on 

 (b. BR.) w. V. B. the West coast of Africa according to several specimens in J. G. Agardh's Herbarium in 

 (1x1). Lund! Brazil, according to Murray's "Catalogue of Ceylon Algae," p. 38). 



Fg. 3. 



3.— CAULERPA CRASSIFOLIA (Agardh) J. G. Agardh. 



J. G. Agardh, TiU Algernes Systematik I., p. 13. 



M. A. Howe, Phycological Studies II., p. 574. 



Syn. Caulerpa pinnata, Weber v. Bosse, Monographic des Caulerpes, p. 289. 



Caulerpa Harveyana Kutzing, Tab. Phyc. VII. : 5, III. 



Caulerpa mexicana Sond. in Murray, Catalogue p. 38. 

 Exsicc : Ferguson, Ceylon Algae Nos. 154, 337, 412 ! 



By examining the original type specimen of the younger Linnaeus' Fucus pinnatus in the herba- 

 rium of the Linnaean Society in London, Howe has shown that this plant belongs to the group Sedoideae 

 and consequently has nothing to do with the C. taxi folia (Vahl) v. crassi folia Agardh, which is the type 

 for J. G. Agardh's C. crassifolia created by him as a distinct species in " TiU Alg. Syst." 1, p. 13. 1 have had 

 an opportunity of examining the specimens Howe mentions in his paper {loc. cit. p. 575), and which 

 are to be considered as the type specimens for crassifolia. They are Nos. 16,445 and 16,446 in J. G. 

 Agardh's herbarium in Lund, and the specimens of this^species that I have collected in Ceylon are quite 

 identical with these, the original specimens from the West Indies. The same is the case with the speci- 

 mens collected by Ferguson (Ceylon Algae, Nos. 337, 154, 412), which are kept in the Peradeniya 

 herbarium under several different names, such as C. taxifolia Ao. (C. A. 412), C. mexicana Sond. (C. A. 

 154), and C. crassifolia v. Harveyana (Kg.) Grunow (C. A. 337). 



There is no doubt left that this plant occurs both in the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans as Weber 

 v. Bosse {loc. cit. 291) mentions, even if C. Agardh's note "In mari Indico & rubro," as Howe has 

 shown, depends on faulty identification of the younger Linnaeus' Fucus pinnatus. It is worthy of 

 remark that in the Agardh herbarium itself there are, of C. crassifolia, only specimens from the Atlantic 

 but none from tlie Red Sea, nor from the Indian or the Pacific Oceans. 



C. crassifolia occurs in Ceylon rarely in the Httoral zone. Thus I have only found it at Weligama 

 (9-3-03) inside the little reef at a depth of Hm., where the water was very thick with sand. On the 



