The discovery of Antillean algal taxa described by Duchassaing in 1850

This note is to call attention to a number of marine algal taxa from the Antilles that were described by Placide Duchassaing in his 1850 work Animaux radiaires des Antilles . The mid‐19 th century was a period when the distinction between marine invertebrates and some calcified benthic marine algae was still not always clear. The names of these algal taxa were validated, although no figures or details on their specific provenance were provided, other than they were from Duchassaing's collections from the Antilles. Duchassaing assigned his new algal species to the following genera: Galaxaura , Amphiroa , Jania , Melobesia and Nullipora . (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)