NO. 1 DAWSON : MARINE RED ALGAE OF PACIFIC MEXICO 57 



Asparagopsis taxiformis (Delile) Collins & Hervey 



Collins & Hervey, 1917, p. 117; Feldmann & Feldmann, 1942, p. 

 81; B</.rgesen, 1919, p. 352. Fucus taxiformis Delile, 1813, p. 295, pi. 

 57, fig. 2. Asparagopsis sanfordiana Harvey, 1855, p. 544; Dawson, 

 1944, p. 257. Asparagopsis sanfordiana forma amplissima Setchell & 

 Gardner, 1924, p. 760, pi. 22, fig. 3, pi. 41 ; Taylor, 1945, p. 149. Fal- 

 kenbergia hillebrandii (Bornet) Falk., as employed by Setchell & Gard- 

 ner, 1930, p. 163; Feldmann & Feldmann, 1942, p. 89, figs. 3-6. Poly- 

 siphonia hillebrandii Bornet, in Ardissone, 1883, p. 376. 



Gametophyte generation 



Thalli saxicolous, to 43 cm. high, consisting of several to many erect, 

 plumose fronds from a group of terete, rhizome-like creeping branches 

 attached at numerous points by rhizoids, some of the creeping branches 

 becoming erect shoots; erect fronds usually consisting of a prominent, 

 rather succulent, percurrent axis 1.5-2.0 mm. in diameter nearly devoid 

 of branches in its lower third but abundantly, densely, multifariously, 

 pinnately branched above in a plumose manner; main axes and principal 

 branches showing a well-developed axial filament running through a 

 cylindrical, apparently open clear space and surrounded by a thick, solid 

 cylinder of peripheral, pseudoparenchymatous tissue, the nodes of the 

 central axial filament giving rise to branched filaments growing within 

 the central cylindrical space; ultimate branchlets acicular, 30-40 fx in 

 diameter, of 3 rows of pericentral cells; reproduction sexual; plants 

 dioecious ; cystocarps terminal on short branchlets, subspherical, 400-500 

 IX in diameter, discharging through a small, non-rostrate ostiole; anther- 

 idia in dense, cylindrical clusters terminating short branchlets and giving 

 them a clavate appearance. 



Type: Holotype not designated and whereabouts of original ma- 

 terial unknown to the writer. 



Type locality: On the coast of Egypt near Alexandria, "sin les 

 vagnes, pres du Phare a Alexandrie." 



Mexican distribution : Pacific Baja Calif. — D. 8474, intertidal, 

 Isla Guadalupe, Dec. ; Hubbs 46-205, Islas San Benito, Sept. ; Williams, 

 5/14/46, dredged, Isla Cedros, May; D. 9897, 10037, 10290, 10480, 

 10-17 miles west of Punta Malarrimo, Apr., Nov. Gulf of Calif. — 

 Common throughout the Gulf of California where it has been dredged 

 frequently from Bahia Tepoca to Punta Frailes. In the intertidal zone 



