64 



more rapidly in some irregularly ramified spots than in the surrounding parts, and 

 these spots appear therefore with a deeper red colour, as ohserved earlier hy 

 Berthold (1882 p. Ki). As mentioned above, this is to be found in broad as 

 well as in narrow forms, and it cannot be used as distinctive character between 

 them. 



The carpospores contain as a rule numerous minute starch-grains which are 

 stained brown-violet with iodine. I have also found fertilised carpogonia containing 

 starch before dividing, l)ul on the other hand I have also seen carpospores with- 

 out starch. 



The gonidia result, according to Behtmoij), from one or two divisions per- 

 pendicular to the plane of the frond, and the frond after these divisions is conse- 

 i|uenlly one-layered as in the vegetative slate. These spores seem to occur much 

 rarer on the Danish shores than the carpospores. I have not 

 liad occasion to observe this kind of fructification in fresh spe- 

 cimens or in specimens preserved in alcohol; I have only met 

 with a few herbarium specimens which seemed to contain gonidia. 

 Thus, a specimen collected in the harbour of Saeby in September 

 was without sexual organs, rather uniformity rose-coloured, and 

 consisted merely of a single layer of cells of the same size as the 

 vegetative cells, but with richer, more granular plasmatic contents, 

 which stained brown-violet to nearly dark with iodine, without 

 however showing distinct starch-grains. Further, the cell-bodies 

 were much disposed to leave the cell under the softening. 



The germinating plants are, as shown by Thuret and Bornet 

 (1878 p. 58), at first filiform, but at an early period longitudinal 

 divisions and rhizines arise. The apical cell is early divided by 

 a longitudinal wall , while the inferior part of the thallus is still 

 filiform (fig. 6). 



The species grows, on the Danish shores, about at ordinary 

 water level, or at some distance above it, especially in winter, or a little under it, 

 but hardly under the lower water-level. When occurring in the Fucus-zone , it 

 grows only in the upper part of it. At Esbjerg it occurs only in the upper part 

 of the littoral region. It thrives best where the salinity of the water is compara- 

 tively high and the locality tolerably protected. It attains therefore its greatest 

 size at Esbjerg and in the Limfjord, where it becomes more than 40 cm. long, 

 while it is smaller on the more exposed groins and moles at Thyboron and Hirshals. 

 In the most southern localities in the seas within Skagen I found the following 

 maximal sizes of the frond: in Little Belt (Middelfart) 24cm., in Great Belt (Smor- 

 stakken) 29 cm., in the Sound (Helsingor) 12 cm. Most of the Danish places for 

 this species are moles; the natural habitats are emerging reefs and boulders near 

 land. It grows also on wood, more seldom on Fucus; young specimens have been 

 found growing on Neinalinn nmltifidnm. 



I'lirplnjni iiiiiliilicdiis. 

 (iiMiniiKiliiifi phiiil. 

 urowiiin (111 Ncmalii)!! 

 imilUluUim. ■>M) : 1. 



