102 University of California Publications in Botany [Vol. 6 



and it differs in the same way from all members of the constricted 

 group, as well as in being complanate and unconstricted. 



In a young growing tip examined, the punctum vegetationis was 

 found to be convex and projecting above the rest of the tissue. 

 Whether this is normal or not, it is strikingly different from the 

 depressed punctum vegetationis as observed in all other species of 

 Scinaia examined. 



Scinaia latifrons M. A. Howe 



Plate 11, fig. 23. 

 M. A. Howe, Bull. Torrey Botan. Club, vol. 38, p. 500, fig. 1 and pi. 28, 1911. 



Plant deep rose red, 12-15 cm. high, 6-7 times dichotomous, flat, 

 broad, 5-12 mm. in diameter (dried), branches decidedly narrowed 

 below; axils rather broad; no axis visible (dried) ; cystocarps large, 

 scattered but with strong tendency to marginal aggregation; — axial 

 strand distinct at the apices but flattening out and diffuse below, 

 largely of slender filaments ; epidermis of uniform large colorless cells, 

 or utricles, and sparse scattered slender colored cells, 1-4 together ; 

 utricles 5-6-gonal in surface view (T), with flattened outer ends, 

 flattened to square to slightly radially elongated rectangular, 30-35|U, 

 (T) by 20-30|U, (R) ; colored epidermal cells scattered, 1-4 together; 

 hypodermis in 1-2 layers, orbicular, large, 18-20/1, in diameter; corti- 

 cating layer thin and loose; antheridia scanty (so far as seen) ; cysto- 

 carps large aggregated at or very near the margins, but some usually 

 appearing scattered over the disk, broad pyriform, globular below, 

 abruptly narrowed outwards into a short stout neck, 250-300/x (T) by 

 200-250/x, (R) ; gonimoblasts very numerous, radiating from a few 

 celled placenta to form a broadly reniform mass and abjointing suc- 

 cessively globular to ellipsoidal spores ; periderm thin, of about four 

 layers of pseudoparenchyma ; punctum vegetationis broad, slightly 

 concave. 



The type was collected at La Paz, Lower (Baja) California, Mexico, 

 by G. J. Vives and is in the Herbarium of the New York Botanical 

 Garden. Through the kindness of Dr. M. A. Howe I have been able 

 to examine a fragment of one of Vives' specimens and Dr. Howe has 

 kindly examined fragments of, and given his opinion on, certain speci- 

 mens from Southern California in the Herbarium of the University 

 of California. The latter specimens are from Santa Monica and San 

 Pedro, floated in from deep water, and were collected by Miss Sarah 

 P. Monks. The species seems to be of rare occurrence. Its range 

 probably extends throughout the north subtropical province of the 



