SAUNDERS [434] 



Family GIGARTINACEsE. 



Endocladia muricata (P. & R.) J. Ag. 



On perpendicular rocks in exposed places at or above the high tide 

 line. Wrangell (62) ; Prince William Sound (293) ; Popof Island 

 (370). This species, so common on the California coast, is compara- 

 tively rare or local on the Alaskan coast. 



Iridaea membranacea J. Ag. ? 



On rocks in the sublittoral zone. Sitka (125) ; Yakutat Bay (207) ; 

 Shumagin Islands (377). This is the plant distributed from Puget 

 Sound by J. E. Tilden as Iridcea heterocarpa (Am. Algae, No. 

 329). The plant is abundant and evidently ranges from Puget Sound 

 to Bering Sea. 



To this species Dr. Farlow has very questionably referred a plant 

 with small, once to twice dichotomously divided plant body. It is 

 broadly obovate or reniform in outline, tapering below to a short 

 stalk, entire or crenate on the margin or in the sterile plants with few 

 or many tooth-like proliferations. Dr. Farlow says "This plant has 

 made the tour of European algologists * * * Bornet is sure that it is 

 a form of Iridcca laminarioides. It also agrees with some of Bory's 

 specimens of that species. I must admit that having seen a series of 

 the two species in foreign herbaria, I found that I could not tell where 

 one began and the other ended." 



The plant is smaller than any of the specimens of Irid&a laminari- 

 oides seen by the writer, ranging from 5 to 10 cm. in length and the 

 primary division of the plant being 2-10 cm. broad. It is also some- 

 what thinner in texture, dark red in color, and lighter on the margins. 

 The cystocarps are small and evenly distributed over the entire surface 

 of the blade except the basal part. 



Iridaea laminarioides Bory. 



This plant is abundant in the sublittoral zone in Puget Sound but 

 was not seen in Alaskan waters. 



Gigartina papillata Ag. forma typica. 



Washed ashore, Shumagin Islands (3^7)- 



A few small plants 5-8 cm. in length, were collected that are iden- 

 tical with the forma subsimplex of Setchell (Phycotheca Boreali- 

 Americana, No. 425). Dr. Farlow states that they are identical with 

 typical G. papillata given him by Agardh. Dr. Setchell in a note 

 on the distributed form says : " Under this name is included the form 

 figured by C. Agardh as the type." 



