NO. 1 DAWSON : MARINE RED ALGAE OF PACIFIC MEXICO 53 



distributed over the entire surface, short on the older parts of the 

 branches, longer and sometimes appearing subverticillate at the apex of 

 branches and at the base of proliferations, rarely attaining a length of 1 

 mm.; medullary filaments mostly 6-18 /a in diameter; peripheral tissue 

 consisting of supporting and tumid basal cells of the assimilators, the 

 former commonly not well developed ; tumid basal cells oval or pyri- 

 form, 45-65 [x long, 28-40 /* in diameter; short assimilatory filaments 

 few, scattered among the extended ones, 2-3-celled, with subglobose 

 terminal cells 20-34 ju, in diameter equaling or smaller than the sub- 

 terminal and basal cells; shaft of the extended assimilatory filaments 

 simple, occasionally branched, the basal part 14-16 /u, in diameter, 16-18 

 ju, above, of cells 2-3 diameters long ; reproduction asexual. 



Type: Holotype is Taylor 34-53, Jan. 5, 1934, on sheet 152 in 

 HAHF. 



Type locality: On intertidal rocks, Bahia Sulphur, Isla Clarion, 

 Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico. 



Mexican distribution: Baja Calif, (cape district) — D. 3215b, 

 Punta Palmilla, Nov. 



The Punta Palmilla specimens were found growing among plants 

 of Galaxaura squalida in such a way as to suggest that they may represent 

 the asexual generation of the natural species of which G. squalida is the 

 sexual plant. A problem arises here, however. If we identify plants of 

 Mexico as G. squalida, and if, as has been indicated by Howe and by 

 Bc^rgesen, G. squalida probably represents the sexual generation of G. 

 fiagelliformis Kjellm., what, then, is the asexual generation of G. squa- 

 lida in Mexico? The plant approaching most nearly the characters of G. 

 fiagelliformis, and the one found growing in association with G. squalida, 

 is G. subfruticulosa which Chou described as the Pacific plant probably 

 corresponding to the G. fruticulosa (Sol.) Lamx. of the Bahamas, and 

 which had until then been overlooked by students of Galaxaura since 

 Kjellman's time. Clearly, a critical review of Galaxaura in the Bahamas 

 is necessary before much more can be ^one toward the solution of this 

 problem. 



Galaxaura veprecula Kjellman 

 Plate 18, fig. 2 



Kjellman, 1900, p. 80, pi. 16, figs. 17-33, pi. 20, fig. 20; Chou, 1947, 

 p. 16, pi. VI, figs. 1-8, pi. XII, fig. 1. Galaxaura ventricosa Kjellman, 

 as interpreted by Chou, 1947, p. 18, pi. 6, figs. 9-12, pi. 12, fig. 2. 



