. Ecological and systematic studies of the Ceylon species of Caulerpa. Marine algae. 140 CEYLON MARINE BIOLOGICAL REPORTS. In the island of Jaffna in the north of Ceylon I found some peculiar specimens of a very exceptional appearance. It is these that I have described as /. mixta (figs. 49, 50). In all respects it is more slender and weaker than the preceding form. In addition to small pedunculated vesicles with constrictions below the top, it has pear-shaped branchlets, clearly indicating opposite arrangement just as in /. geminata, Harv.; finally, and this is the most characteristic feature
. Ecological and systematic studies of the Ceylon species of Caulerpa. Marine algae. 140 CEYLON MARINE BIOLOGICAL REPORTS. In the island of Jaffna in the north of Ceylon I found some peculiar specimens of a very exceptional appearance. It is these that I have described as /. mixta (figs. 49, 50). In all respects it is more slender and weaker than the preceding form. In addition to small pedunculated vesicles with constrictions below the top, it has pear-shaped branchlets, clearly indicating opposite arrangement just as in /. geminata, Harv.; finally, and this is the most characteristic feature, some few branchlets grow out cylindiically to a breadth of 3 mm., and show themselves to be of the same shape as C. ambigua Okamura (c/. Okamura , •'Algae from ; PI. 1, figs. 4, 6, 7). Oeographical distribution.—Ceylon : Dondra Head! Matara! Weligama (/. crassicaulis) ! in the last named place at a depth of about 1^ to 2 metres (at low-water) inside the reef together with C. sertularioides and C. taxifolia; in the other, places in tlie upper littoral zone ; Jaffna (/. mixta)! Indian Ocean ; Pacific Ocean. C. sedoides in a wide sense is known from Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania in the south. From Ceylon, the Gulf of Siam (Schmidt) in the north, and to the Friendly Islands in the east. Tiie different forms seem to have their different limited districts: thus,/, tasmanica and geminata have exclusively southern distribution (Australia and Tasmania), whereas /. crassicaulis has exclusively northein, true tropic distribution (the tropical coast of Australia, Ceylon to Friendly Is.). This possiblj' points to the fact that these forms liave rather the character of different races or elementary species, an inference that is furthermore strengthened by the fact that, as I have mentioned above, /. crassicaulis in Ceylon is constant and uniform. Against this,/. wixto seems more local, and, as I have above tried to show, its peculiar branching may probably be
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