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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 123
On submerged algæ.
Eastport, Maine, W. G. F.; Portland, Maine, C. B. Fuller; Gloucester, Mass., Mrs.
Bray and Mrs. Davis; South Boston, Dr. Durkee; Northern Europe.
A beautiful and easily distinguished species, found only in the colder waters of the Atlantic, a variety
occurring as far south as South Barbara, on the coast of California. It is apparently not uncommon in
spring from Boston northward, sometimes occurring in company with C. Pylaisæi. It is rare, however,
on the northern coast of Scotland. It is easily distinguished from its allies in this latitude by the simple,
subulate, secondary branches with which the main branches are clothed throughout.
C. PYLAISÆI, Mont. (Wrangelia Pylaisæi, Ag. Sp.—C. Pylaisæi, Ner. Am. Bor., Part
II, Pl. 36 b.—Pterothamnion Pylaisæi, Næg.)
Fronds three to six inches long, main branches alternately decompound, secondary
branches short, rather stout, opposite, distichous, once or twice pinnate with short
subulate ramuli; tetraspores cruciate, sessile on the ramuli; favellæ binate on the
upper branches.
On wharves and algæ below low-water mark.
Orient, L. I., Miss Booth; Wood’s Holl, Mass.; and common from Nahant northward.
A common species of the Atlantic coast from Boston northward, but much less abundant southward. It
is found early in the spring on wharves and washed ashore with other algæ, but in the summer it is
only seen in a dwarfed and battered condition. It is sometimes found in company with C. Americanum,
and it is by no means beyond a doubt that the two species are really distinct. In C. Pylaisæi the
filaments are more robust, and the cells themselves shorter and broader than in C. Americanum, the
main branches are less decompound and spreading, and the apical branches are more erect and
compact. It is, however, in the secondary branches that the difference is best seen. In C. Pylaisæi they
are short and thick, and the ultimate divisions are broadly subulate. In C. Americanum they are long,
slender, and flexuous. Those who have only seen the typical forms of the two species would scarcely
believe that they were not very distinct species. The collector, however, especially on our northern
coast, often finds transitions between the two. At the time the Nereis was written the cystocarpic fruit
was unknown, and the species seemed to Agardh to belong rather to the genus Wrangelia. The fruit,
which is not uncommon in the spring, is distinctly the same as in Callithamnion, and is a true favella.
The antheridia differ from those of C. corymbosum and its allies. Instead of forming sessile,
hemispherical tufts on the internodes of the branches, as in the last-named species, the antheridia of C.
Pylaisæi are in the form of rather loosely branching tufts inserted at the nodes of the secondary
branches, and occupy the position of the ultimate branches, reminding one somewhat of the antheridia
of C. graniferum, Menegh., figured by Zanardini in Phycologia Adriatica, Pl. 11, or the figure of C.
polyspermum in Phycologia Britannica. As far as our observations go, the antheridia and cystocarps of
the present species are on different individuals. The color, when dried, is usually somewhat brownish,
and decidedly less rose-colored than in C. Americanum.
C. AMERICANUM, Harv., Nereis Am. Bor., Part II, p. 238, Pl. 36 a. (Pterothamnion
Americanum, Næg.)
Fronds three to six inches long, capillary, main branches alternately many times
branched, ultimate divisions plumose, secondary branches