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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 167
but it must be confessed approaching C. dasyphylla. Bailey was inclined to refer it to C. dasyphylla. He
quotes Montagne, who first described the species, as Laurencia dasyphylla, as follows:
“Notwithstanding the close affinity of this alga to Laurencia tenuissima and to L. dasyphylla, it cannot
be confounded with either of them. The absence of ramification distinguishes it sufficiently from the
first, and the form of the ramenta does not permit it to be referred to the second, from which it is in
other respects quite distinct.” Just what is meant by the “absence of ramification,” by which L.
Baileyana is to be distingished [sic] from L. tenuissima, is not easy to see.
C. LITTORALIS, (Harv.) J. Ag. (Chondria littoralis, Ner. Am. Bor.‚ Part II, p. 22.)
“Fronds robust, elongate, subdichotomous or irregularly much branched, branches
flexuous, attenuated, with rounded axils, ramuli scattered or crowded, fusiform,
attenuated at the base and apex, simple or pinnulated, acute. ” (Harvey, l. c.)
Wood’s Holl, Mass., W. G. F.
The description taken from the Nereis applies pretty well to a specimen collected at Wood’s Holl. We
have seen several specimens of the species collected at Key West. It is dark colored and coarse, but has
the branching and habit of C. tenuissima. The Key West specimens are reddish yellow, perhaps owing
to exposure to the sun. Species of the present genus vary so much in appearance, according as they are
more or less thoroughly “squashed” in pressing, that the determination of dried specimens frequently
has but little value.
C. ATROPURPUREA, (Harv.) J. Ag. (Chondria atropurpurea, Harv., Ner. Am. Bor.,
Part II, Pl. 18 e.)
Fronds four to six inches high, robust, very densely branched; branches patent,
secondary branches tapering at the base and apex, beset with scattered fusiform
ramuli.
Var. FASCICULATA, Farlow.
Secondary branches borne in clusters; cystocarps broadly ovate, sessile on short
lateral branchlets.
From Charleston, S. C., southward, Harvey. Var. fasciculata, Fort Hamilton, N. Y.
The characters of the present species are not well defined. Specimens from Charleston, determined by
Harvey himself, are robust and have the ultimate branches scattered, but unfortunately they are
without fruit. What has been supposed to be a variety of the same species occurs rather commonly on
the coast of California, and was distributed in the Alg. Am. Bor., No. 57. It is, however, not beyond
question whether the form distributed should not rather have been referred to C. nidifica, Harv.,
described in the Supplement to the Nereis The plant which is here described as var. fasciculata is lessrobust
than specimens from California and Charleston, but resembles them in the dark color and
secondary branches which taper at both extremities. It differs from Charleston specimens in having the
branches in tufts, in which respect it resembles some Californian specimens. Whether the New York
form should be considered a variety of C. atropurpurea rather than C. nidifica is perhaps doubtful.