44 Dansk Botanisk Arkiv, Bd. 2. Nr. 6. 



anth are the three four-locular sessile anthers (Fig. 31) which are 

 cast off when emptied, but the central strands remain for some 

 time (Fig. 30 d). The pollen is moniliform (confervoid) as in other 

 Halophila species (see T. B. Balfour, fig. 52); the cell walls are 

 gelatinous and swell in water. 



The female flower has the same position, and is enclosed in 

 two involucral leaves of the same shape as in the male flower. 

 It consists of an ovoid ovary with a long filiform process on 

 the apex of which the rudimentary perianth and the three fili- 

 form stigmas are supposed to be placed (cf. p. 40). I have seen 

 herbarium specimens of female plants in the collections of the 

 Imp. Botan. Garden of Petrograd and of the Roy. Botan. Gar- 

 den, Calcutta, both from Port Denison, Queensland, and both 

 with young fruits. The fruits were placed below the middle of 

 the assimilative shoot, not at the apex as in the case of the 

 male flower. But this difference may be due to later develop- 

 ment, the assimilative shoot having continued its growth after 

 the flowering time. According to F. v. Müller the seeds are 

 globose, transparent and smooth. 



The features given above indicate that H. spinulosa does not 

 differ from the other species of the genus in floral characters. 

 As regards the vegetative parts, the rhizome and the shoot-for- 

 mation follow the type, but the numerous opposite and distich- 

 ous leaves are peculiar. 



The species is known from several places on the north and 

 east coasts of Queensland, from the Philippines, and I have also 

 seen specimens from Java (And jer, leg. Andrea, 1868). Probably it 

 has a wider distribution in the Melanesian region, a suggestion 

 which is strengthened by the discovery of its occurrence at Car- 

 narvon. 



(Issued 4th Sept. 1916.) 



