32 
SIPHONACEJE. 
Fronds 3-6 inches high, setaceous, much branched ; normally in a decompound pin- 
nate manner, but very irregularly so. In what we may call typical or normal speci- 
mens, the outline of the frond is somewhat pyramidal, the lowest branches being very 
long and patent, the upper gradually shorter and more erect. In such specimens the 
branches are sometimes simply, sometimes doubly pinnate ; in either case the lower 
half of the branch or branchlet is bare, the upper plumose, with simple ramuli inserted 
in nearly distichous order. To describe every variety of ramification different from 
this, and commonly occurring in this species, would be an endless and useless task ; 
and worse than useless to found new species on such variations. I have endeavoured 
above to indicate the principal varieties which I have observed among American spe- 
cimens. The var. 7 secunda looks very like a distinct species, and had I seen none 
but carefully selected specimens, possibly I should have so regarded it ; but though 
many specimens may be found strictly conforming to the character assigned, having 
all their ramuli secund and recurved, others occur, growing intermixed with them, 
in which the ordinary ramulification is followed. At Key West I collected some speci- 
mens which I cannot distinguish from B. ramulosa, Mont., and which seem to pass 
through var. v and other intermediate forms, into ordinary B. plumosa. Having re- 
ceived from Dr. Montagne himself an authenticated specimen of his plant, I can speak 
with more confidence. 
Bryopsis plumosa , under one or other of its many forms, is found in most parts of 
the world, at least within the temperate and tropical zones. In Europe it occurs as 
far north as the Faroe Islands (lat. 65°). In the Southern Ocean it extends to Cape 
Horn, and the Falkland Islands, and to New Zealand. The B. Rosce of the Southern 
Hemisphere seems to be merely a luxuriant form, and not a distinct species, 
Plate XLY. A. Fig. 1. Bryopsis plumosa, var. 7 secunda ; the natural size. Fig. 
2 and 3, secund and bilateral plumules from the same ; magnified. Fig. 4. B. plumosa-, 
var. S ramulosa > the natural size. Fig. 5, imperfectly pinnulate branch from the 
same, magnified. Fig. 6, apex of a branchlet, more highly magnified. 
2. Bryopsis hypnoides, Lam our. ; frond setaceous, decompoundly much branched 5 
branches spreading to all sides ; ultimate branches filiform, naked below, beset above 
with scattered or crowded, irregularly inserted, very slender, byssoid, pinnated ramuli. 
Grev. Alg. Brit. p. 180. Harv Phyc. Brit. tab. 119- Wyatt, Alg. Danm. No. 81. 
Harv. Man. p. 146. (quere Lam. Jour. Bot. 1809- P- 135?) B. cupressoides , Lam. 
fide I. Ag. 
FIab. Key West, W.H.H., Dr. Blodgett , Professor Tuomey. (v. v.) 
Tufts dense, 4-6 inches high. Fronds setaceous, much branched, the branches issu- 
ing from all sides of a common stem or central filament, long and virgate, either quite 
simple, or bearing a second set of similar quadrifarious branches. These branches, as 
in B. plumosa , though sometimes ramulose nearly to the base, are generally naked in 
