. Ecological and systematic studies of the Ceylon species of Caulerpa. Marine algae. Fig. 31.—C. peltata (lam.). (1 X 1). plant which occur in literature are rather unsatisfactory, I have in fig. 31 given a picture of the typical peltata form. The disc-shaped branchlets are more or less closely set, but in every case they radiate in all directions with the peltate assimila- tion discs directed obliquely upwards. It is precisely this direction of theirs which does not appear in the figures of this form which occur in literature, and which have probably been drawn from dried material. So in Webe
. Ecological and systematic studies of the Ceylon species of Caulerpa. Marine algae. Fig. 31.—C. peltata (lam.). (1 X 1). plant which occur in literature are rather unsatisfactory, I have in fig. 31 given a picture of the typical peltata form. The disc-shaped branchlets are more or less closely set, but in every case they radiate in all directions with the peltate assimila- tion discs directed obliquely upwards. It is precisely this direction of theirs which does not appear in the figures of this form which occur in literature, and which have probably been drawn from dried material. So in Weber, v. Bossb's monograph, where otherwise so many Caulerpas have been excellently reproduced, the figure of C. peltata {loc. cit. PI. XXXI. 9) is scarcely happy, and in Reinke's work on Caulerpa only a dwarf-form with discs pointing in one direction is drawn. The length of the vertical axis naturally varies very much from 1 up to 10 cm. The diameter of the discs also varies, but the average diameter may be said to be about 3 mm. This form does not, as a rule, occur in the uppermost part of the littoral region, but somewhat lower down. It is consequently never exposed at low water, but can then be seen with its long axes swaying to and fro in the swell. This was the case at Kosgoda, where it grew on stones in densely shaded pools together with such a typical deep form as Didyurus purpurascens. In very similar cucumstances it grew also at Kangesanturai on the island of Jaffna. At the last-named place I observed a rather remarkable form; fig. 32 is a picture of it. It is a largely branched, elongated form of which the majority of the branchlets are typical peltata branchlets Some of the assimilators, however, are clothed only at the base and a little way up with such branchlets : at the top, on the other hand, branchlets of a different kind are developed, especially on the side axes : the joints become longer between the different branchlets, at the same time as their discs Fig.
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