16 
SIPHONACEiE. 
We shall distribute the nine American species into three sections, characterised as 
follows : — 
Sect. 1 . Phyllerpa. Kutz : Fronds piano-compressed, or flat, leaflike, very entire. 
1. Caulerpa prolifera , Lamour. ; surculi naked, glabrous ; fronds erect, petiolate, 
flat, leaflike, nerveless, entire, tongue-shaped, rarely once forked, proliferous from the 
disc or apex. Lamour. Ess. p. 67. Ag. Sp. Alg. 1, p. 444. Trevis. in Linn. vol. 
22, p. 129- Phyllerpa prolifera, Kutz. Sp. Alg. p. 494. Fucus Ophioglossum , Web. 
and Mohr. Turn. Hist. t. 58. (Tab. XXXVIII. B.) 
Hab. Keys of Florida, on submarine sands. Key West, W. H. H., No. 95. Mr. 
Ashmead. Soldier’s Key, Professor Tuomey , No. 83 in part. (v. v.) 
Surculi prostrate, throwing out from their under surface branching and fibrilliferous 
roots, simple or branched, twice as thick as hog’s bristle, glabrous, glossy, cylindrical, 
shrinking, and longitudinally channelled when dry. Fronds stipitate, the stipes 
filiform, from a quarter-inch to an inch in length, of equal diameter with the surculi, 
compressed at the apex, and gradually passing into the base of the oblong or 
obovate, tongue-shaped obtuse lamina. The frond' or lamina is flat and leafllike, 
two to four inches long, from half to three-quarter inch wide, either quite simple 
or once forked, with a perfectly entire flat margin. Occasionally similar stipitate 
fronds spring proliferously from any point of the disc or from the base or apex, 
especially if the latter has been wounded. The substance is membranaceous, somewhat 
horny and translucent, with a very glossy surface when dry. The colour is a full 
grass- green, becoming oil-green and variously tinged with yellow in a dried state. It 
does not adhere to paper in drying. 
This species is rather rare at Key West. My specimens were picked up on the 
beach, after a southerly gale in the month of February. They closely correspond with 
specimens from the Mediterranean Sea, where, as well as in the subtropical Atlantic, 
this plant is not uncommon. C. prolifera has a very different habit from the other 
American species, but is closely related to the Australian C. parvifolia, and to C. anceps 
from the coral reefs of the Pacific. It appears to be still more closely akin to C. costata , 
Kutz, a Mediterranean species unknown to me, and said to differ in having a semi- 
nerved lamina. 
Plate XXXVIII. B. Fig. 1. Caulerpa prolifera ; the natural size. 
Sect. 2. Ptilerpa. Fronds piano-compressed, inciso-serrate, pinnatifid or pinnate. 
2. Caulerpa Mexicana , Sond. ; surculi naked, glabrous ; fronds erect, subsessile, 
pinnato-pinnatifid ; rachis (broad), piano-compressed ; pinnae opposite, vertically 
