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48
THE MARINE ALGÆ OF NEW ENGLAND.
low-water mark. It can be distinguished from the preceding species by its lighter color, by being less
rigid, and by the smaller size of the cells, which are rather uniformly as broad as long. If we may
suspect that C. Picquotiana is only a form of C. melagonium, we may also suggest that the present is
possibly the corresponding form of C. ærea. To unravel the synonymy of the species is quite hopeless.
Our specimens agree with No. 353 of Crouan’s Algues Marines du Finistère and No. 183 of Areschoug’s
Algæ Scandinavicæ, both of which are supposed to be the Conferva Linum. of the Flora Danica. They
are also identical with No. 355 of Hohenacker’s Meeralgen, which purports to have been determined as
C. herbacea, Kg., by Kützing himself. Whether they are the same as the Conferva Linum of the
Phycologia Brittanica we cannot determine. They approach very near to, if they are not identical with,
C. crassa of the Italian algologists. In fact, Crouan considers C. Linum, Pl. Dan., to be the same as C.
crassa, Ag. The Chætomorpha sutoria of the Nereis Am. Bor. seems to us the same thing. We have
examined Bailey’s specimens, from which Harvey named the species in the Nereis, and have also
examined. Bailey’s locality, at Stonington. To the naked eye, in Bailey’s specimens, the filaments
appear smaller than the typical form, but a microscopic examination gives the same measurements as
specimens we collected ourselves, which agreed precisely with No. 353, Crouan. In saying that the New
England specimens of C. sutoria should be considered to be rather C. Linum, we do not mean to imply
that the European C. sutoria is not distinct. Whether our species is the same as Rhizoclonium Linum,
Thuret, is, perhaps, doubtful. In specimens of the last-named species from Cherbourg the filaments
appear to be somewhat smaller. The species usually, but not always, loses its color drying, and scarcely
adheres to paper unless under considerable pressure.
species inquirendæ.
C. OLNEYI, Harv., Ner. Am. Bor., Part III, p. 86, Pl. 46 d.
“Filaments tufted, setaceous, straight or curved, soft, pale green; articulations once
and a half as long as broad.” (Harvey, l. c.)
Rhode Island, Olney.
C. LONGIARTICULATA, Harv., Ner. Am. Bor., Part III, p. 86, Pl. 46 e.
“Filaments capillary, curved, loosely bundled together, flaccid, soft, pale green;
articulations 4-6 times as long as broad, swollen at the nodes; var. β, crassior,
filaments more robust.” (Harvey, 1. c.)
In rock-pools, between tide-marks. Ship Anne Point, Mr. Hooper; Boston Bay, Mrs.
Asa Gray; Little Compton, Mr. Olney; var. β in brackish ditches at Little Compton,
Mr. Olney.
The two last species are only known from the descriptions in the Nereis. No authentic specimens exist
in the Olney Herbarium, which is now the property of Brown University. The specimen of C. Olneyi
mentioned in Algæ Rhodiaceæ by Olney was determined by the present writer, not by Harvey himself,
and a recent examination of the specimen, for which we are indebted to the kindness of Professor
Bailey, lead us to think that the specimen was not correctly determined.
RHIZOCLONIUM, Kütz.
(From ριζον [rizon], a root, and κλων [klon], a branch.)
Filaments decumbent, entangled, branches short and root-like.
The genus is easily recognized, as a rule, by the root-like character of the branches. In some species the
branches are frequent; in others, however, they are only occasionally