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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 139
apices much incurved, branches beset throughout with very short incurved or
recurved branchlets, cells in upper part scarcely as long as broad, two to three times
as long below, corticating cells forming a sharply defined band at the nodes;
tetraspores and favellæ?
In eight feet of water.
Canarsie, L. I., Mr. A. R. Young.
This curious species has unfortunately never been found in fruit. We have only seen three specimens,
which were all collected by Mr. Young. The largest was about three inches high and the filaments were
coarser than those of C. diaphanum and C. strictum. It is easily recognized by the numerous short
incurved branchlets which arise singly or in twos and threes at the nodes. It is possible that a large
series of specimens would have shown that the present is a form of some other species, but when
received from Mr. Young in 1875 it seemed so distinct that the name C. Youngii was given to it, and
under that name it was mentioned in the Report of the U. S. Fish Commission for 1875, but without
any description. The Hormoceras Capri-Cornu of Reinsch, from Anticosti, judging from the plate and
description in the Contributiones, published in 1874-75, is apparently the same as C. Youngii, and the
name of Reinsch has the priority.
SUBORDER SPYRIDIEÆ.
Fronds filiform, monosiphonous, formed of longer branching filaments of
indeterminate growth, from which are given off short, simple branches of
determinate growth, cells of main filaments corticated throughout, the secondary
branches corticated only at the nodes; antheridia borne on the secondary branches,
arising from the nodes and finally covering the internodes; tetraspores tripartite,
borne at the nodes of secondary branches; cystocarps sub terminal on the branches,
consisting of obovate masses of spores in dense whorls around the central cell, with a
pericarp formed of monosiphonous filaments packed together in a gelatinous
substance.
An order consisting of a single genus and a small number of species, most of which are tropical. The
systematic position of the order is a matter of dispute. The fronds resemble closely those of the
Ceramieæ, as do also the tetraspores, but the cystocarps are peculiar and not closely related to those of
any other order. A section of the mature fruit, which is usually either two or three parted, shows a
monosiphonous axis, around the upper cells of which the spores are arranged in irregularly whorled
groups. The whole is surrounded by a wall, which is formed by the union, by means of a jelly, of the
elongated tips of subdichotomous filaments which arise from the cortical cells of the nodes just below
the sporiferous cells. The antheridia are first formed at the nodes, but soon extend over the internodes
for a considerable distance. The development of the frond is fully given by Cramer, l. c. In the Nereis
the order is placed next to Ceramiaceæ, and in the Epicrisis of Agardh between the Dumontiaceæ and
the Areschougieæ.