Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift. 1920. Bd. 14, H. 2—3. 



REMARKS ON SPLACHNIDIUM RUGO- 

 SUIM (L.) GREV. 



BY 



CARL SKOTTSBEUG. 



Spldchnidium appears lo ha ve become a favorile Iheme of lady 

 botanists. In 1<S92 a study of this alga was made by Margaret 

 Mitchell and Francks Whitting, who came to the conclusion 

 t hat il ought lo form a separale order, characterized mainly by 

 /.oosporangia contained in conceplacles (Phycological Memoirs ed. 

 by George Murray Pt. I, no. 1). Latel}', Mabel Roe (A contri- 

 l)ution to our knowledge of Splachnidiiim, Bot. Gazelte 62, 1016) 

 bas Iried to trace Ihe hislory of the »initial cell» and finds it pre- 

 ferable to relain the plant among the Fiicaceae, regarding it as 

 almost inlermediale between this order and the Laminariaceae. 



Oltmanns (Morphologie und Biologie der Meeresalgen I. 376) 

 regards the initial cell as »rätselhaft» and mentions the plant in 

 conneclion \vilh Ihe Encoeliaceae. 



Geographical distribution. 



xXccording lo De Toni, Sylloge Algarum I. 224, .S. rugosum, the 

 only species, bas been observed in Easlern India, along Ihe coasts 

 of Auslralia, Tasmania and New Zealand, at St. Pauls Island and 

 al the (]ape of Good Hope. From all Ihese regions except India 



I have seen material in herbaria. 



In August, 1908, I discovered Splachnidiiim growing in Bahia del 

 Padre, Masalierra (Juan Fernandez Islands), ofl" the coast of Cbile. 

 This isolated locality lills the gap in ils circumpolar distribution. 



II has not been found in Polynesia, and I did not see it in Easter 



