Notes on Three Bermudian Marine Algae

Taylor, WM Randolph

I. Rhododictyon, a new Rhodophycean Genus: In material collected by the writer and Mr. A. J. Bernatowicz in Bermuda in 1949 and later, netlike Rhodophyceae were very scarce, but little specimens were secured on a few occasions and attributed to Halodictyon mirabile Zanard. This plant forms a loosely spongelike, three dimensional, net (Taylor 1960, p. 567). While dredging off Castle Roads in the summer of 1960 with Mr. John J. Frederick some old and eroded coral blocks were brought aboard the boat and, in the laboratory, among the great variety of ill-developed algae which covered them, minute rosy netlike plane blades were found, seldom as much as one centimeter in diameter. Thus a new type of netlike alga of simple organization is shown to be present in the Bermudas in addition to such complexly organized ones as Dictyurus and Thuretia. Mr. Frederick secured this new plant at a quite different part of the colony later, and again many miles away on Argus Bank. These plants, then, though scarce and inconspicuous, are widespread in the area at depths from about 40 to over 60 meters. A review of material collected earlier showed that one collection in particular, which had been secured off Castle Roads in 1953 from water about 90 meters deep, was likewise of this new type.

Notes on Three Bermudian Marine Algae

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