110 University of California Publications in Botany [Vol. 6 



may be only portions of one and the same plant and that that plant 

 may be an abnormality. Certain it is, that there is need of farther 

 material before it can be satisfactorily placed. J. G. Agardh did not 

 refer his plant to any definite species or variety but placed it apart, 

 labelling it " Scinaia fronde prolifera." 



Were it not for the constrictions, the writer would unhesitatingly 

 place it in the first subgroup and hesitate only as to whether to refer 

 it to Scinaia japonica or S. Johnstoniae. 



The question of the value of constriction as a diagnostic character 

 is, as stated above, a puzzling one. All species of Scinaia probably 

 present constricted forms, but such forms in the cylindrical continuous 

 form are irregular and plainly the results of proliferation following 

 injury. The plant under discussion, however, is as regularly con- 

 stricted as, or even more regularly constricted than, Scinaia Sali- 

 cornioides and cannot be such an injured plant as those just referred 

 to. It is, perhaps, to be compared with Scinaia furcellata var. snh- 

 costata J. Ag. which the writer, however, has not examined. Agardh, 

 however, evidently did not refer the present plant to his variety and 

 Scinaia furcellata var. subcostata may, of course, be nothing more 

 than a chance constricted form of Scinaia furcellata, as the writer 

 sometimes suspects the present plant to bear a similar relation to 

 Scinaia Johnstoniae, or perhaps more likely to Scinaia japonica. 



There are certain differences, however. The rather stronger axial 

 strand and certain differences in the utricles attract attention. The 

 latter differences may or may not be important, but the utricles cer- 

 tainly approach those of Scinaia japonica in size, shape, and in certain 

 markings (artefacts?) on the radial walls. 



The utricles of the proposed new species under discussion are more 

 elongated radially than those of Scinaia Johnstoniae, giving more of 

 the palisade character of Scinaia japonica. Besides, in both the 

 present species and in Scinaia japonica the radial cell walls, in all 

 sections examined, have narrow, very definite transverse folds, appear- 

 ing as striations in surface view. These are probably artefacts, due 

 to incomplete swelling of the walls of the dried specimens, but they 

 are different from the coarse and irregular wrinkles noticed under 

 similar conditions in other species. They may be of no diagnostic 

 value whatsoever, yet they are striking in their appearance and 

 constant in their occurrence. 



